The Island Holiday
by Litanya
Summary: [Sorato, TAIORA, Tairine, Takari Cathato, mentions of Jyoumi, Kenyako] Tai and Sora are now back... but how are they going to tell their friends that they are alive? And how will Tai deal with T.K? Last Chapter up.
1. Prologue

Litanya: I do not own Digimon

_**The Island Holiday**_

_**Prologue- A Change of Plan**_

The nineteen year old blond rock star hurried along the bustling streets of Odaiba, trying to avoid the large crowds gathering to see a street performer. He was not sure why he was hurrying- he knew that Tai had soccer and so would not be home for at least half an hour- but still he rushed to the Kamiya apartment as though a hundred angry soldiers were chasing after him with swords. Well… maybe not _that_ fast, but he would still arrive at the Kamiya apartment at least fifteen minutes before his best friend was due home. He tried to tell himself that he was rushing so that he could catch his younger brother T.K and talk with him about plans for their father's birthday before Tai got there, but he knew that that was just an excuse. Although T.K was at the Kamiya's apartment- Tai's younger sister Kari was his best friend if not his girlfriend- Matt had another reason for hurrying. He was nervous. To tell the truth, he was confused about being nervous. Sure, he was about to ask a huge favour out of Tai, but Tai was his best friend, and therefore it should not be too much of a problem. Still, he had a feeling that something was going to happen, and that made him really nervous. And that made him rush. So, fifteen minutes before his friend was due to be home from soccer, Matt found himself at the Kamiya apartment, staring at the door. For some reason he could not bring himself to knock.

"Are you trying to open the door with your mind or something Matt?" the blond jumped as his best friend's voice floated down the hallway. Taichi Kamiya, known as Tai by his family and friends, appeared to be the exact opposite of Matt. Whereas Matt was blond and extremely pale, Tai's hair was a chestnut brown and his skin was tanned from being in the Sun at soccer. Matt's eyes were an icy blue which gave the impression that he liked to be alone, whereas Tai's chocolate brown eyes showed a warmth and understanding towards everyone. Tai carried his soccer bag slung over one shoulder as he walked down the hallway towards Matt, who was surprised to see his friend. Had fifteen minutes passed so quickly? He quickly hid his shock and replied.

"I thought it could be my stand-in best friend, you know, until you got back from soccer," Tai just shook his head and shot him a strange look.

"You _are_ weird," he murmured as he took his keys from his soccer bag, "Why are you here anyway? I mean, I love having spontaneous visits from my friends, but I thought that you would be packing by now. Your flight does leave in two days you know." He unlocked the door and gestured for Matt to enter. The apartment was quiet for once, and Matt could not see Kari or T.K anywhere.

"Where's Kari? I thought she and T.K were doing their Maths projects here this afternoon," Matt said, avoiding Tai's question. The brunette shrugged as he dropped his soccer bag on the floor.

"They're probably in Kari's room. They should be out in a minute though. They always try to make sure they're out of her room before I get home. I'm early today though, so they'll be late. I trust them and all, but still… it's better if they are out here when I'm home. Did you need to talk to T.K?" maybe Tai had a bad feeling too, because he never usually questioned Matt so much about his visits. In truth, Tai did have a bad feeling. He almost felt as though he was going to vomit. It was this feeling which had made him leave soccer practice earlier than usual. The feeling had intensified when he had seen Matt.

"Well… sort of. I actually came here to ask you something, but I need to talk to T.K too," Matt admitted. He felt a little awkward there in the middle of the kitchen. Tai had put his keys down on the bench, and he was busy pulling some things out of a cupboard.

"Well if you need to ask me something, just ask! I'm your best friend- you should be able to ask me anything. There's no need to be scared," Tai himself was not sure if his statement was true. He was scared about whatever Matt was going to ask him. He tried to ignore the feeling though. He was the digidestined of Courage- he was supposed to understand that all fears could be overridden. Besides, it was just a question from his best friend.

"I know. Okay… you know how Sora and I are supposed to go to Paris in two days time, right?" Tai nodded, and Matt's uneasy feeling grew, "Well… my band has a very important meeting in three days time. The meeting is supposed to go on for a few days and it could get us a really good record deal. I have to go to this meeting, but I'm supposed to be in Paris. Sora has been looking forward so much to going and I can't just tell her the trip has to be cancelled…" Matt trailed off, hoping that Tai would understand what he was going to ask. He hated having to ask this, but his girlfriend would kill him if he completely cancelled their trip.

"Where are you going with this?" Tai asked when his friend trailed off, "I don't understand what you're asking." He hoped that he didn't understand anyway. Matt counted this as another bad sign, but he forced himself to go on.

"I was hoping that you would be able to go to Paris with Sora instead of me. You're her best friend, and so maybe she'll have a good holiday. I wish that I did not have to ask you if you would go with her, but I can't go and she has been looking forward to seeing Paris for weeks now. I can't let her down more than I have to. What do you say?" Tai was silent. Inwardly, he was having a battle with himself. He truly did not know what to say. He wanted to go- he had always wanted to go overseas and it would be beautiful in Paris- but there was a problem. If he had to stay with Sora for a week in Paris he might do something stupid, like telling her that he had feeling for her, and that would make everything really awkward. Besides, he would feel guilty if he went as Matt had already paid for everything. And he would feel especially guilty if he said something to Sora. It was difficult being in love with your best friend's girlfriend.

"Can't you postpone the meeting, or the trip or something? I mean, I know how much both you and Sora have looked forward to this trip and it would seem to be such a waste if I went instead of you," Matt listened, but he felt that Tai had other reasons for not wanting to go on the trip.

"I tried to move the meeting, but they were very busy. This may be the only chance 'The Wolves' have at a record deal. And I called the airline too, but they told me that I could not change the flights unless I paid extra, and I can't afford to do that. And I won't get my money back if no one goes. Please Tai, I know that you probably have soccer and other things, but it's Paris! You told me when I booked the tickets that you wished that you could go and see Paris one day- well now you can. Please?" Tai sighed to himself. He couldn't say no now.

"I'll go, but only if Sora is okay with it. I know what she's like when she's angry and it's scary. And one day I will pay for you to go to Paris, to make it fair," Matt visibly relaxed. Sora would have killed him if he had completely cancelled the trip. She still might kill him for abandoning their plans, but it was less likely than if he had cancelled them altogether. He wanted to go to Paris, but his stupid meeting made it virtually impossible.

"Thanks Tai. You have no idea what this means to me," he still had the weird feeling he had felt when he had arrived at the Kamiya apartment, but he did not care. Tai would go. Now he just had to tell Sora about it.

"Good luck telling Sora about this. Now, if I'm going to Paris in two days, I'd better start packing," Matt was about to reply when the door to Kari's room flew open. T.K and Kari rushed out, but they stopped short when they saw Tai and Matt there.

"Oh, hi guys. You're home early today Tai," Kari said once she had finally recovered from her shock. Tai just shrugged and took a gulp from a bottle of some energy drink he had gotten from the cupboard.

"I wasn't feeling very well and so I came home a little early," Matt blinked, and so did Kari and T.K. Tai _never_ left soccer early, even if he was feeling sick.

"Okay, who are you and what have you done with my brother?" Kari joked as she made her way to the kitchen table with some books, "Or else you must be really sick." This worried Matt. If Tai was sick, then he couldn't go to Paris.

"It's hard to explain. I'm not sick but I have a very bad feeling about something- I don't know what- but I couldn't concentrate on training. Coach practically sent me home because I missed ten easy shots at goal in a row. He was worried that I would lose my accuracy forever if I stayed, so he told me to go home," it was rare to even hear about Tai missing ten hard shots at goal in a row, never mind easy shots. His concentration must really be bad. Matt shifted a little uncomfortably. His uneasy feeling and Tai's couldn't be linked, could they? Kari frowned at her brother's story, but T.K gave her a 'look'.

"Kari had a bad feeling this afternoon too. I would say that it has something to do with the Digital World but… I can't sense anything wrong, and the Digital World has been silent for years now," the young boy finally said, "Maybe something else is going to happen." Matt wasn't sure. Then again, he had never experienced anything like this before, whereas Kari had. And T.K usually knew everything that Kari knew.

"Or we could just be imagining things. These things do happen you know. And even if something is about to happen, we can't do anything about it now. We can't do anything until we know for sure what is happening, so we shouldn't worry," Tai said calmly, and he seemed to be talking to his sister in particular. He knew that Kari had a tendency to worry overly much about anything she felt was unusual unless she was told not to worry. Then she only worried a little.

"I agree with Tai. We cannot solve a problem before we know what it really is," Matt was quick to back up his best friend's words. After all, he knew that T.K was almost as good as Kari was when it came to worrying.

"Yeah… you're right I guess," Kari muttered as she began pulling worksheets out of her pile of books, "But something bad will happen if T.K and I don't get this project done." T.K immediately moved to the table and soon the pair ere busy muttering about some complex equation.

"I'd better uh… go and tell Sora about the meeting. Thank you again- I owe you a huge favour," Matt said hurriedly, knowing that he couldn't put off telling Sora about the trip any longer. Tai followed him as he walked to the door.

"No, I owe you one. Good luck telling Sora about this. Just make sure that she wants to kill you about this, not me. I'm just the innocent bystander in all of this," Tai seemed to be joking, but Matt wasn't entirely sure. He knew about Sora's temper just as much as Tai did, and he didn't like it. Once Matt had left the apartment, Tai went into his room and flopped onto his bed. Something stuck into his back, but he didn't care. In two days time he was going to Paris with his best friend's girlfriend. He knew that something bad was going to happen- he just knew it…

End of Prologue

Litanya: Well folks that is the prologue all done. Chapter one will hopefully be out in about a week's time, and it will probably have the first day or two of the holiday. Anyway, please review and tell me what you think about it. Constructive criticism is very good, but no flames please. And this will eventually be a Taiora- just warning people who only read certain couplings. Please don't flame me about the couples. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this prologue!


	2. Departing

Litanya: Hi again. Thanks to everyone who reviewed- this chapter is for you guys! (And for Steph and Hippy… always for those two J). Anyway, I don't own Digimon. Oh, and Tai and Sora and basically all of the others still live at home with their parents.

_**The Island Holiday**_

_**Chapter One: Departing**_

"Fridge… vacuum cleaner… kettle…" Kari and her parents exchanged looks as they watched Tai scribble a list in his sprawling hand-writing. They had no idea what the list was for, but the items seemed rather random. They had been watching him write this list for the past ten minutes, and she couldn't stand it any longer.

"What are you doing Tai?" he jumped as she spoke, as if he hadn't realised that she was there. He quickly dropped his pen and picked up his list, seeming to frown at certain items.

"I'm making a list Kari," she sighed. She should have known that he would say that. She moved so that she was behind him and tried to see the list. Tai noticed her movement and ripped the list in half, tearing it so she could not see it.

"What was the list for?" she wanted to make sure that her brother had not gone insane. He had been acting weirdly ever since Matt had asked him to go to Paris with Sora, and Kari was worried that her brother's sanity was disappearing.

"Oh… it was a list of things that I could see at the present moment. I-uh… I'm a little nervous about flying and it was calming me down a little," Tai admitted, seeing that Kari wasn't about to give up asking him, "I mean… last time I was on a plane I vomited in Sora's hat and… what if something else goes wrong? I've seen that show where they investigate why a plane crashed, and it only takes something as small as a screw to cause a plane to go up in flames." Kari rolled her eyes. She knew that she should never have shown him that show. His mother nodded sympathetically, whilst his father just shook his head.

"Tai, it'll be fine. Plane crashes are very, very rare and the chance of you being in a plane crash is very, very low. Besides, I thought that you told us that you received the crest of Courage in that other world that you helped to save. So have courage and forget about crashing. Just concentrate on having a fun holiday," his father told him confidently, "Have you finished packing? Your flight leaves in six hours, so we have to leave for the airport in about three hours, so you'd better be ready." Tai sighed and nodded.

"I've packed everything I need," his parents seemed happy with that, and after a few more hurried assurances, they left to do their weekly shopping. They would be back in time to take him to the airport.

"You still feel that something is going to go wrong, don't you?" Kari asked as he continued to tear up his 'list'. He nodded. The feeling had faded a little- he no longer felt as if he was going to vomit all of the time- but it was still there, in the back of his mind. And it wouldn't go away.

"You know… if something bad does happen on this trip… tell Matt not to feel guilty for me, will you? I just have this feeling and it won't go away. It's rather scary really. I wish that I didn't have to go on this trip, but what if I'm just making it up? What if it is just my imagination that is telling me that something bad is going to happen? And if I don't go… then both Matt and Sora will be angry with me. I can't handle that at the moment… and I mean… its Paris! I get to go and see the Eiffel Tower and the Arch de Triumph! I may not sound it, but I am excited about going. But at the same time, I know that it is going to be a little awkward. I mean… this is supposed to be a holiday for Sora and Matt, but now it's turned into just me and Sora. In Paris. What if I accidentally said something? You know how I feel about Sora. If I let something slip, she'll try to ignore me for the rest of the trip, or feel uncomfortable and then it probably would have been better if Matt had just cancelled the trip. This is all so frustrating!" Kari felt very sorry for her brother at that moment. It wasn't often that he shared his problems- he preferred to keep them a secret so that no one worried about him- but when he did, he always made her remember just how lucky she was that her best friend seemed to feel the same way about her as she felt about him. Tai didn't have that luxury, and she knew that he suffered for it. Tai had to keep on being a best friend to both Matt and Sora, and as he didn't want to alienate himself from the two of them, he had had to keep silent about his own feelings. Kari knew that it hurt him- he had told her so once before as he had advised her on what to do about Davis' crush on her- but she had no idea what it felt like to have to watch someone else be with the one that you loved. Kari shook her head slightly to herself. Matt really did owe her brother for this.

"Tai, you've seen Sora almost everyday since she and Matt started going out, and you have never said anything yet. You've solved quite a few of the arguments between them on several occasions, when you could just as easily have broken them up. You care too much for the two of them to say anything. And knowing you, I'd say that you would rather die than tell them what you really think about their relationship. So what makes you think that you'll say something to Sora in Paris?" she knew that her brother wasn't convinced. His 'mask' fell into place, and he suddenly looked very excited about the prospect of going away. She sighed. Tai would let her know what he was thinking sometimes, but when she pushed too far, he would go into automatic lock-down mode. He may not be very good at Maths or Science or other academic subjects, but he certainly was good at acting.

"You're right; I shouldn't be worrying about this. I'm going to see Paris!" he walked over to the bin, with the crumpled list in his hand. He threw the list into the bin, and he now seemed completely excited about the trip, "I can't wait until we have to leave for the airport! Do you want to play a game of monopoly with me or something? I need something to keep me from running around the house." Kari sighed, but quickly agreed.

'_Oh Tai… I do hope that you can find your happiness somehow,'_ she thought to herself as she went to find the monopoly board, '_After all of this time, and all you have done… you deserve it.'_

* * *

"Sora, are you sure that you've packed everything?" her mother called out from a distant room, "We have to leave here in about an hour to get to the airport on time." Sora smiled at the sight of her suitcase. She could still barely believe that she was going to Paris. Of course, it wasn't going to be the romantic holiday with her boyfriend that she had planned… but at least she was going to see the city. She had been quite surprised at how easily she had accepted Matt's apology when he had told her that he couldn't go on their trip. She had been disappointed of course, and she _had_ yelled at him a lot, but in the end, she had been pretty happy with the situation. Okay, so it wasn't exactly her ideal holiday, but she hadn't _really_ talked to Tai for a long time, and this holiday would be a good chance for them to catch up. Sure, they had had a lot of quick conversations, but for some reason she felt that they hadn't _talked_ in a long time. So whilst she was disappointed that Matt couldn't go, at least she had her best friend to see Paris with. And, she recalled, Tai had always wanted to see Paris.

"I've got everything I need Mum, don't worry. Besides, if I miss anything, I can always get Tai to get stuff for me," she joked. Her mother appeared in the doorway of her room, a strange look on her face.

"Just be careful around Tai, Sora. The past few times I have seen him, he's been acting a little strange. He seemed worried about something when I went over to see Mari yesterday, and she told me that he has not really been himself for a couple of months. I think that she is hoping that he'll come back acting normally again. Maybe if you talk to him, you'll be able to find out what is wrong. Mari thinks that Kari knows, but she's not sure. Anyway, I'm sure that you'll have fun in Paris. Make sure that you send me a postcard whilst you're there," Sora thought about what her mother had said. It was true that Tai had been a little quieter lately, but when she had asked him about it, he had just remarked that everyone changed as they grew older.

"Okay Mum… I'll talk to Tai and I'll send you a postcard. Is that a deal?" her mother smiled before crossing the room and running a hand through Sora's hair.

"You've grown up so much Sora. I know that this is a cliché, but it seems like just yesterday you were a little baby that I could easily hold in my arms. And now you're a mature young woman, ready to depart on an overseas adventure. It just doesn't seem real somehow. Please be careful on the trip, and make sure that you have fun. I love you, my little daughter, and I want you back home in one piece," there were tears in her mother's eyes. Sora almost felt like crying too, even though she was perfectly old enough to go away without her parents, but at the same time she was old enough to understand her mother. When she had been younger, before the Digital World, she had felt that her mother would willingly keep her in a cage to mold her into the person that she _should_ be. It was only in the Digital World that she realised that her mother just loved her and didn't want any harm to come to her. It was then that she had begun to understand her mother, and their relationship began to heal. Now that she was nineteen, Sora understood that not only did her mother love her, but she was a good friend too. Her mother was often lonely, as it was only the two of them, and so when Sora was out… her mother was alone. And so she knew that although her mother wanted her to go and have fun, she also wanted her to come back in one piece. And although the younger Sora would have scowled at what she thought was her mother trying to smother her, the older Sora was almost in tears, because her mother meant as much to her as she meant to her mother. And that was a lot.

"I'll be careful Mum, I promise. I will come home in one piece and nothing will stop me from it. And I'm going to Paris! Of course I'm going to have fun and enjoy myself!" she flung her arms around her mother and gave her a big hug, "Thank you for helping me pack Mum. I know that it's hard to think about this holiday because you'll be alone for the week, but I'll be back before you know it!" Her mother wiped her tears away and smiled.

"Of course, it's only a week. You had better tell me all about your trip when you get back though. Now come on, I'd better make sure that you packed everything. I doubt hat you can convince Tai to get you too much if you left things behind, not unless Matt has given him money or something like that. You know Tai, he's practically broke- or at least that's what he claims anyway," Sora laughed as her mother began to unpack everything from her suitcase. As the pile from her suitcase grew bigger, she sighed. Now she was going to have to pack it all again…

* * *

Matt waited with Sora's bags as she went to get a drink from a nearby vending machine. Sora's mother had been unable to leave the flower shop that she owned and ran, and so Matt had driven her to the airport himself. He had offered Tai a lift too, but Kari had adamantly refused to let him go to the airport without taking her too, and there would have been no room in the car. Besides, Tai's parents had wanted to drive him anyway.

"Are you sure that you're not mad at me?" Matt asked Sora as she returned with a can of a dark coloured drink, "I mean, last time you went on a plane with Tai he accidentally threw up in your hat and then forgot to tell you about it. I know that you must be mad at me for making you go with him on a plane again." She smiled and he couldn't help but smile too. She was always beautiful when she smiled and it was almost as if she had some kind of control over his emotions. If she was happy, then he would content himself to be happy too.

"I've told you that I'm not angry at you, per say. I'm angry at the record company for only having this time available and I'm kind of mad at the airline for not being able to change the flights, but I have found that I can't really stay mad at you. Not that I didn't try, of course," she actually looked serious when she said that. He didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

"So you're okay with the fact that I'm making you go with Tai?" he just wanted to make sure that she was happy before she left. He didn't want to force her into a week of unhappiness. She rolled her eyes at his question, as if they had been through this same conversation many times before.

"Yes, I'm fine with it. He's my best friend and I'm sure that we'll have fun. And you know Tai… if the trip is boring he'll try and do something stupid to cheer me up. I'll be fine. And I'm purposefully not taking a hat on the plane, so he can't vomit in that again. Are you going to be okay for a week without me?" It was his turn to roll his eyes.

"I don't know. I'm sure that without your presence I will wither away until nothing is left of me. Is that what I'm supposed to say?" he wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug, "Of course I'm going to miss you and I wish that I could go with you. You have to promise to call me every day, will you?" She put her head on his shoulder, feeling extremely comfortable. As comfortable as she was however, something inside of her seemed to be telling her that something was changing, that something would change and what was once comfortable would become… she couldn't quite understand.

"I promise that I will call every day. I'm going to miss you too. It's only a week though… only a week and then I'll be back here," he didn't say anything. He didn't have to. They just continued to stand as they were, enjoying the comfort of being together…

* * *

"Go on Tai, you've got to tell them that you're here now," Kari told her brother as they stood watching his two best friends, "You'll need to check-in soon." He shook his head.

"We still have about ten minutes before we even have to think about checking-in. Lets leave the two love-birds for a few minutes," he turned to her, his back now facing Matt and Sora. She knew that it was easier for him to deal with the situation if he didn't watch them. Their parents had said their goodbyes in the parking lot, and so it was just the two siblings together. Kari was going to get a lift home with Matt. T.K and the other digidestined had wanted to come to the airport to say goodbye, but Joe, Mimi and Izzy were busy with part-time jobs and T.K had promised his mother that he would help her with a report she had to write. Ken and Yolie were on a school trip with the computer club and Davis was… well, she didn't really know. Cody's grandfather hadn't let him out of his kendo lesson, and so only Kari and Matt were able to see Tai and Sora off on their trip.

"I'm going to miss you whilst you're gone you know," she said a little awkwardly. She had no idea what she was supposed to say to her brother. When he was in this weird mood, nothing seemed to really get through to him. He smiled at her words.

"I know. I'm going to miss you whilst I'm gone too. But promise me one thing. Promise me that you and T.K won't take too much advantage of the time whilst I'm gone, okay? I don't want to come back and find out that you're pregnant or something," he joked. She felt her face getting hot and she knew that she was blushing. She knew that he suspected that she and T.K were more than just friends- no, she knew that he knew that they were more- but that didn't give him the right to say things like that.

"I promise you that nothing like that will happen. Gosh, you'll only be gone for a week- it would take me at least two weeks to figure out if I'm pregnant or not," she giggled at the look of horror that crossed his face as she finished her last sentence.

"You'd better not do _anything_ like that whilst I'm gone otherwise little T.K won't be able to do things like that any longer," he sounded very serious and for a moment Kari wasn't sure whether he was joking or not. Then he grinned, and she relaxed a little. Only a little though. She had no plans to do anything like what Tai was suggesting, but it was better to be careful with Tai when he was in his 'over-protective' state.

"I promise you that I won't do anything like that whilst you're gone. But really, I was only joking before. T.K and I would never do something like that, especially not whilst we're still in school. You have a very sick mind, my dear brother," Tai just shrugged.

"It's better to be safe than sorry," was all that he would reply. He refused to explain what he meant, even when she threatened him. By the time she had finally given up on getting him to answer, it was time for Tai to go and interrupt the two 'love-birds' so that he and Sora could check into their flight.

"Gosh… if those two get any closer I'm going to have to wonder if they really are two separate beings," Kari said loudly as she walked up to the couple with Tai. Her brother grinned, and there was a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"I know. Are they joined at the hip or something?" Kari couldn't help but laugh at how quickly Matt and Sora jumped apart, and the expressions on their faces were just too funny. Tai was chuckling as Matt and Sora just pretended to ignore them.

"How long have you two been here?" Sora finally asked, once both Tai and Kari had stopped laughing. She felt embarrassed, but it was only another one of Tai's sick jokes. She felt Matt grab her hand and she felt a lot better.

"I don't really know. I guess… half an hour or so? It might have taken me that long to get through my little 'talk' with Kari about what behaviour is acceptable during the next week," Tai said perkily. Kari rolled her eyes. He was acting way too happy all of a sudden, and she had no idea why.

"Ah… T.K's name cropped up in it somewhere, didn't it?" Matt asked, knowing that the only sibling he knew who was as protective of a younger sibling as he was, was Tai. Kari nodded, "Well, don't worry Tai. I'll make sure that T.K and Kari don't get _too_ close whilst you're away. Besides, they have school and projects to concern themselves with." Tai grinned.

"I know. But I just like to make sure that they get the picture. A couple of threats should be enough to make them behave," Kari opened her mouth to object, but then she had no idea what to say. Why would she object when her brother was saying that he knew that she wouldn't do anything? Sora was watching the whole situation with a smile. She sometimes wished that she had a sibling, but from what she could see from the relationships between Tai and Kari and Matt and T.K, she had never wanted an older sibling. She was quite content to have no siblings, but a younger sister would have been very cool.

"Anyway guys, we'd better head towards the check-in area otherwise we're not going to be able to get to Paris," she directed the group, and everyone obeyed. Tai picked up his small suitcase, and Matt carried Sora's. They headed towards the check-in area, and after Tai and Sora had received their tickets, it was time to say goodbye. It was only a quick goodbye, because they were only leaving for a week, but it took a while, mainly because it took a long time for Matt and Sora to finish exchanging "I love yous" and everything. In fact, Tai almost had to drag Sora away from Matt so that they would make it through the security check in time.

"We almost missed the flight," Tai complained as he and Sora lined up to show their passports, "Are you sure that you had to say that many 'I love yous' to Matt?" She stuck her tongue out at him for the teasing tone in his voice. It kind of irritated her when he teased her about her relationship, but at the same time, she felt guilty. She knew that she and Matt were Tai's two closest friends, and by having a relationship they were excluding him a little. So whenever Tai said something about Matt and her, she felt bad. He didn't say much about it- and most of the times that he had said anything about it were when he was teasing them- but he would never answer her when she asked him what he thought about her and Matt together. He never made it obvious that he was avoiding the question, and it usually took her a couple of hours to figure out that he had never really answered her. But in the end, by his teasing, she knew that he was okay with it all. At least, she hoped that was true.

"You didn't help the matter by having a running commentary with Kari and so we were distracted," she shot back.

"I wouldn't have had to keep a running commentary if there was nothing to comment on," he pointed out as he dug around in his backpack for his passport. Sora already had her passport out in front of her. As Tai's search began to get a little more desperate, Sora panicked a little.

"You do have your passport, don't you?" she asked, her anxiety showing in her voice. Tai grinned and nodded, holding up his small passport book.

"I actually found it a while ago. The look on your face was priceless though," they approached the people at the desk and their passports and tickets were checked. They then proceeded to the lounge to wait for their boarding call.

"I hope you brought something to occupy you on the flight. It's going to be a long time. Eight hours or so I think it is," Sora told him in a way that suggested that if he couldn't occupy himself then she wasn't going to help him out.

"I have a portable game thing and a book packed, but there are in-flight movies to watch as well. I _have_ been on a plane before, and so I know that they can get boring," he pointed out, and to illustrate his point he pulled out of his backpack a huge book. Sora couldn't stop herself from staring at the thickness of the book. She had never seen Tai read a book that was more than a hundred pages, and even then it had been a school book that he had been forced to read.

"You brought a book? Since when did you like reading?" he shrugged as he placed the book back in his bag.

"Kari showed this book to me and it's really good. It's only the second book out of eleven, but I'm sure I'll eventually finish it. I don't read often, but you know… I have to use my education somehow," she nodded, not knowing what else to say. Her mother had been right. Tai had changed a little, but it was only a subtle change as far as she could see. He still teased her like he used to, he still had his goofy grin and he had retained his positive attitude, but she felt that there was something… wrong… with him. It was as if there was something about his attitude that was false, or as though he himself was missing something, but she had no idea what it was.

"Well, at least you'll have something to keep you occupied. I don't want to have you vomiting on me because you're bored," she joked as they were called forward to board their flight, "But hey… we're on our way to Paris at last! I can't wait to get there!" And with that they boarded the flight…

* * *

"Hey Kari, are you okay? You've gone very quiet?" Matt asked her as he drove her home. Matt was a little worried because Kari, although normally quiet, would never withdraw into herself as much as she had now. And although Matt wasn't as over-protective as Tai was, he still was a little… enthusiastic in helping Tai out to protect her. He thought of her as a little sister, and she probably would end up being a part of his family, one day in the future.

"I'm okay… I guess that I am just going to miss Tai a lot this week, that's all," she suddenly chuckled, "I mean, I guess that that is a pathetic excuse. He's only going to be gone for a week, but I almost feel as though he's going to be gone for a long, long time. Do you know what I mean?" Matt was silent for a moment, his eyes intent on the road. After a minute or two, he finally answered.

"I know what you mean. Something is going to change. I know that. But I have no idea if we're going to like it or not. Anyway, it's probably us just being silly. It's a week in Paris- that's all. They're going to enjoy themselves and come back and everything is going to be fine, okay Kari?" he wished that he believed those words. He truly wished that he did…

To be continued…

Litanya: Okay… so maybe I didn't get as far with this chapter as I thought I would. The next chapter will definitely have at least the first day of the holiday. I just thought that this chapter may set it up a little more, and yeah. As for the list that Tai was making… well, my brother challenged me and told me that the first word of this chapter had to be fridge, so it is. Anyway, please review and I'll hopefully see you next chapter!


	3. Arriving

Litanya: I don't own Digimon. A big thank you to everyone who reviewed- I really appreciate your comments. Anyway, on with the fic! Oh, and the 25 years later thingy never happened- so 02 happened, but not the 25 years later stuff. Oh, and my knowledge of Paris is not very good- I have only been there once, and that was for about… six hours, and I was on a tour bus from Germany, so the tour was in German, and although I am an adequate beginner of the German language, I didn't understand it. So please tell me if there is something wrong with my knowledge of Paris, or French because I only learnt French for a short time.

_**The Island Holiday**_

_**Chapter 2: Arriving**_

Sora sighed as the movie she was watching finished. The movie had gone on for two hours, but they still had to endure another three hours of flight before they reached Paris.

"Hey Sora?" Tai asked to get her attention. She was daydreaming- or at least he thought she was- so he waited for her nod before he went on, "Do you speak French? I mean… I know that Matt does because of his grandparents live there, but do you speak it?" She just stared at him. She had forgotten about that. She remembered Matt telling her when they booked the trip that he wouldn't bother asking someone to show them around the city, as Matt knew French and so he could translate for her when needed. She didn't speak French- all that she knew how to say was 'Je ne parle pas français', meaning 'I don't speak French.' This was not good.

"No, I don't. I forgot about that because Matt booked everything, and he speaks fluent French, so it was no problem. What are we going to do? I doubt that there are many people in France who can speak Japanese. This is really not going well and we haven't even landed in France yet!" she put her head in her hands, trying to think of a way to solve the problem.

"Hey, its okay you know. I just asked if you spoke French, and it doesn't really matter if you don't. I speak French. Not fluently of course, but enough to get along," she pulled her head out of her hands and stared at him in amazement. She'd had no idea that he had even taken French class.

"How on Earth do you speak French? You better not be joking, otherwise I'll… where did you learn French?" he laughed at her look. He knew that he didn't look intelligent- he knew that he wasn't very intelligent too- but for some reason he had found that he could learn a new language relatively easily. At high school his timetable had been stuffed up, and for some reason the only class he could take had been French. So he had turned up to the class, and had been roped into doing it for a year. And for some mysterious reason that he didn't know about, the same mistake happened the next year as well. And so he had ended up taking French for six years, and he was quite good- the best in his class in fact. However, he knew that there was a lot that he needed to learn about the language.

"I took French for six years due to a timetable glitch. Why do you think that I was sent to Paris with T.K? Catherine spoke no Japanese at that time- didn't you notice her accent when she came? - And so I needed to speak French otherwise there would have been no way to communicate. Don't you know Russian? You went to Russia back then, didn't you?" she shook her head slightly.

"No, they spoke Japanese. I did find it odd when Catherine came here on that exchange program and misunderstood me when I asked her a few questions. Is that how you were able to ask her out and date her whilst she was here?" he nodded, wincing as he recalled his failed 'relationship' with the French digidestined. The break-up had not been fun. He had never told Sora and the others exactly why he and Catherine had broken up, and he never really planned on telling them. All that they knew was that it hadn't been nice and that he didn't want to talk about it with them. Ever.

"Of course. Did you really think that I would go out with a girl I couldn't even talk to? Everyone knew how bad Catherine's Japanese was at the beginning of the year… didn't anyone wonder how I not only managed to speak with her, but also ask her out when she barely knew how to put a conjunction into a sentence? I thought that people just assumed that I spoke French… but obviously not," she giggled as she remembered the many puzzled conversations that she had had with many of the digidestined once they had learnt that Tai was dating Catherine. Those conversations had all started with something along the lines of 'Did he ask her in Japanese and she nodded, not knowing what he was talking about?' Now she at least knew why everything had gone along how it had. But everyone had assumed that they had broken up because they had been unable to communicate properly. Tai refused to talk about it and that had helped the rumor spread, as everyone knew that Tai hated to admit failure to _anyone._

"So you didn't break up because of language difficulties then… interesting," he looked worried and she laughed, "Don't worry, I won't ask. I know that you don't want to talk about it. But it's good that you'll be able to guide us around Paris without too much difficulty." His worried look faded a little, but not much.

"Well… I hope that I can. My French is not perfect by far, but I should be able to ask for directions and read maps and information… I hope. It's been a while since I had to read or speak the language. The last e-mail that Catherine sent me was almost a year ago. Between telling me how much she hated me it was an e-mail about the Digimon disappearing as far as I know," as he finished the seat-belt sign came on, and the plane started to shake.

"Good afternoon passengers, this is the captain speaking. We're experiencing a little turbulence at the moment, and it is expected to last for several minutes. Please return to your seat and fasten your seatbelt," Tai groaned as the announcement finished and the plane began to shake harder. He had been feeling sick the entire flight, but he had managed to hide this from Sora. The take-off had been horrible, but he had managed to keep himself from vomiting. However, now he felt even worse than he had during the take-off. He _hated_ motion sickness.

"Hey, are you okay?" Sora asked. She had heard him groan and she could clearly remember the last time that they had been on a plane together during turbulence. He had vomited in her hat. Tai didn't answer. Instead he quickly searched the seat pocket of the seat in front of him. He was just glad that he was by the window- he didn't have to vomit whilst sitting next to some stranger. Sora turned away and winced as she realized what Tai was doing. The turbulence was brief- Tai thanked God several times for that- and after an air hostess had helped Tai with his problem, they settled back down for the final two and a half hours of the flight. Tai, still pale, decided to sleep for the rest of the flight and hopefully the landing, whereas Sora found a movie on the airline's 'television' that she had wanted to see for a long time. Needless to say, there weren't any more problems for the rest of the flight.

* * *

"…and so Tai and Sora have arrived in Paris. Tai called me a few minutes ago to tell me that they were safe. Apparently he was sick, but apart from that the flight went well. It's about one in the afternoon there now."

"_Oh, is the time difference 8 hours?"_

"Yeah, it is. I looked it up on the internet before Tai went, so that I could tell him when he should call me to let me know how Paris is," Kari was on the phone to T.K. It was their nightly ritual. At around 9 o'clock Kari would 'borrow' the phone from the living room and sneak it into her room, where she would call her best friend and speak with him in private. She usually ended up falling asleep with the phone still in her room, so she would sneak out in the morning and replace it before anyone knew that it was missing. Her parents wouldn't care if they found out that she was using the phone, but she was afraid that Tai would count these phone calls as a threat to the innocence of his younger sister, and hence make sure that she couldn't use the phone. Tai was irritating that way sometimes. However, she thought that he knew about the calls, even if she had never told him. She wasn't going to push her luck though.

"_Yeah, it wouldn't have been fun if he'd called you at three a.m. or some other ridiculous time like that. You miss him already, don't you?"_ she blushed as he seemed to read her mind. She knew that it was stupid, but she missed her brother. She was sixteen, and he was nineteen, but they hadn't _really_ spent much time apart. And so when he went away… of course she would miss him. She missed Sora too, but not as much as she missed her brother of course.

"I know that it's stupid, but of course I miss him. And I think that it is unfair. He gets to be in Paris right now, having a great holiday, whilst I am stuck here in Odaiba. It just doesn't seem fair to me. Why should he get the holiday?" her boyfriend- _best_ friend- chuckled.

"_So you would rather be in Paris with Sora and have Tai here talking with me on the phone? Well… I think that I like this arrangement better, but that's just me. I don't want you to go to Paris without me tagging along with you,"_ she blushed as she realized what he meant. Well… what she hoped that he meant anyway.

"I promise that I will not go _near_ France unless you are with me. Only if you make the same promise though. If you want to that is," she waited for his answer. This was the way they operated. They never openly admitted that they cared for each other as more than just best friends. Instead, they played a game of promises that made sure that if they didn't spend the rest of their lives together, they would be breaking a lot of promises that they had made with each other. And since they would both rather die than break their promises, it was guaranteed that they would end up together forever.

"_I promise that I will never go to Paris without the presence of Hikari Kamiya. Is that good enough for you?"_

"Of course. Your promises are always good enough for me," and then there were red faces at _both_ ends of the line.

* * *

At the same time that T.K and Kari were exchanging promises, another blonde teenager was on the phone to his girlfriend.

"So Tai was sick on the flight? Didn't he buy some of those wristbands I told him about, the ones that stop airsickness?"

"_No, he claimed that they wouldn't work. He did buy some when we got to Paris though. He said that he would test them on the way back, to prove that you were wrong. He is so immature sometimes. Anyway, how are things back in Odaiba? Did Kari get back in time to call her beloved?"_ Matt smiled as he lay back on his bed, the phone propped up on his shoulder.

"Yeah, she was home ages ago. Your flight _was_ nine hours remember. I was home before you'd even finished watching your first movie."

"_Well… you would have been in Paris at the moment if you hadn't had that stupid meeting," _she reminded him, and he winced. He should have known that she had meant it when she had told him that he would never forget this 'almost ruined' vacation.

"You know that I want to be in Paris right now…. Hey, wait a minute. How did you and Tai find the hotel? I forgot that neither of you spoke French and so I forgot to organize someone to pick you up at the airport. You are at the right hotel, aren't you?"

"_I knew that you didn't know either… Uh… Tai can speak French. Well… not perfectly, but he knows enough to get us around. Do you remember how we all wondered how he got Catherine to go out with him? He apparently asked her in French. T.K should have known about this as he went to Paris with Tai to help Catherine out for the Digital World. But yeah, Tai got us to the hotel really easily, so you don't need to worry about us getting lost,"_ Matt almost dropped the phone. He was sure that Tai had only been able to get Catherine to go out with him because of a misunderstanding. It wasn't that he thought that Tai was a bad person, but more that he thought that Catherine was too much of a snob to want to date Tai, who wasn't getting good grades. He guessed that he had been very, very wrong. Maybe that had been the reason why they had broken up. But it didn't matter.

"That was awfully good luck, wasn't it? I mean… there is no way that Tai would learn French of his own choice, and if he had been forced to learn a language, then he would have done English. So why did he choose French? I mean… how could he have known that he would need French for the future, when most countries use English as a way to communicate to other ethnic groups and cultures? Not that I'm complaining- at least now I know that you are safe from predators- but why does it seem like our fates are being decided at this moment?" there was a pause at the other end of the line. He waited for her to answer, knowing that she was mulling over what he had just said.

"_I think that you are over-reacting. He learnt French because of a random timetable error… hang on a sec…"_ he waited. In the background he could hear Sora talking to someone- probably Tai- and after a moment the voices stopped, "_Tai just told me that it was more than one timetable error. In fact, the same error happened three years in a row until he just decided to take French anyway. He thinks that it was his parents that did that, just to annoy him. See? There is no hidden plot by fate to make this holiday happen this way. You are just paranoid. Do you think that I'm going to leave you or something? If you do, you're being very silly you know."_

"I am not paranoid!" he said quickly, stamping out the thoughts that maybe Sora would fall in love with Tai and the two would remain in Paris and never come back to Japan, "I just don't like the way that this holiday is turning out to be. I miss you already and you've only been gone for about ten hours. I can't wait until you get back. I guess that I'm just jealous that you guys get to spend a week in Paris whilst I have to spend days trying to persuade some record company that my band is worth a deal. But I really do miss you." He knew that he was probably over-reacting, but the thoughts of Sora somehow leaving him refused to leave his mind. He knew that she would never do something like that to him, and that Tai would never steal his girlfriend, but logic seemed to be evading him. He didn't like it. He trusted both Tai and Sora and as far as he knew, neither of them had any romantic interest in the other at all. But… he was just confused. Why on Earth did he secretly think that when or if Sora returned to Japan, she wouldn't be in love with him anymore? And why did he secretly think that she and Tai would make a good couple? That last question was the one that really stumped him.

"_I miss you too. And if the situation had been reversed, I know that I would have been jealous of you too. But it's only for a week and I love you. It doesn't matter how fantastic this holiday may be, I am still looking forward to coming home. It does sound kind of sad that we miss each other after ten hours apart, but that is just because our love is strong. That's what I believe anyway,"_ Matt relaxed again, and all thoughts of betrayal and loneliness flew out of his head. Sora could always make him feel better, whatever the situation. It was one of the reasons why he loved her so much. Of course they had had tough periods and fights along the way- no relationship was perfect after all- but they had made it through all of those problems. Just like they would make it through this week without being able to physically see each other. They would make it through the week. They would.

* * *

Tai explored the hotel room whilst Sora was on the phone. He could hear them exchanging 'I love yous' and 'I miss you' and other things like that, and it made him feel sick. He really regretted agreeing to come on this trip. He _hated_ not being in control of a situation, and ever since he had arrived in Paris he had felt that he was being pushed in a direction that he didn't want to go in. All that he needed now was for Catherine to see him sometime during the trip. He shook his head and muttered something about crazy French girls before heading into the bathroom to splash some cold water on his face. He needed to wake up and face reality. The hotel room they were in was pretty good. There was a television, a small bar fridge and other standard things that one would usually find in a hotel room. There was even a couch for people to sit and watch the television on. There was one problem with it however. There was only one bed. It was pretty obvious that Matt had forgotten to change the arrangements of the entire holiday, including the sleeping arrangements. He doubted that Sora even noticed. As soon as they had arrived at the hotel, Tai had called his sister to let her know that they had arrived safely and then Sora had taken the phone. He hadn't been on the phone long, and so he doubted that Sora had really looked at the room. He sighed and went back into the main room. He sat on the couch, but he didn't turn on the television. It was a really comfortable couch. He wouldn't mind sleeping on it at all. Sora was still talking to Matt, so he decided to turn on the television. The news was on. It was a report on a wealthy French family which had been robbed the night before. His eyes widened as he realized that he knew the family. No, he didn't know the family, but he knew the blond girl standing with her parents, who were talking to the Police. He quickly turned the television off and ran a hand through his hair. What was going on? Was fate trying to taunt him or something? First with this holiday, and now with Catherine appearing on the news at the moment that he turned it on?

"Are you okay Tai?" he jumped. He hadn't realized that Sora had finished her phone call. He had been too busy calling Catherine names in his head.

"I'm fine. I just saw something really weird on the news, that's all. So how's Matt? I'm guessing that he misses you because you just spent at least ten minutes going on and on about how much you miss him," she picked up a cushion from the other end of the couch and threw it at him.

"You're just jealous that you don't have a girlfriend back home to call and say that to. And yes, Matt is fine and he does miss me, so there," she stuck her tongue out at him and he raised an eyebrow.

"There's no need to get childish all of a sudden. You are nineteen after all. And as for my lack of a girlfriend at the moment, I can always visit my ex. She lives only a few streets from here. I could always just go and stay with her and leave you here by yourself," she laughed. She knew that he and Catherine really detested each other now. Tai probably wouldn't go within ten miles of her house if he could help it.

"You're bluffing. I know how much you hate her at the moment. Anyway, what do you want to do today? It's half past one, so we have a lot of time to do stuff," she flopped down onto the couch next to him and stifled a yawn, "I shouldn't have gotten up so early today. I forgot that the difference was so much. By the time it is time to sleep here, it will be about six in the morning back home. I should have slept later today." Tai grinned. He had slept pretty late for him. Most people assumed that he slept until the afternoon, but for some reason, he always woke up at around six every morning. That morning he had slept until seven though, so he wasn't as tired as he could have been. Then again, he was used to only getting five hours sleep every night. He was generally an insomniac, and so he was used to not sleeping. He had tried to sleep on the flight to eradicate his air-sickness, but he had not been able to. He had pretended to sleep so that Sora wouldn't worry about him getting sick again, but he had been awake. The landing had been horrible- almost as bad as the turbulence- and so he had bought air-sickness bands at the airport to make sure that he would feel better on the way home.

"I don't hate Catherine per say… more like she hates me. But uh… I don't know what we should do today. How about we just take a walk through the city, to see what is on offer? I don't know about you, but I don't really know much about the city. All I know is that it has the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de' Triumph and a few museums, and that it is beautiful," Sora shrugged. Matt had told her that he would take her on a tour of the city, and she had assumed that he knew a lot about the city's attractions. After all, he had told her many times that he had lived with his grandparents in Paris for a year when he had been younger. That was why his French was so good, he had always explained.

"I don't know much either. But you should know more, after having learnt French. Didn't they teach you about the culture of the country, or did you miss those classes?" Tai just made a face.

"They didn't test us on it, so I never really learnt it. Besides, it's been ages since I have had a French lesson. The only reason I can still understand the language is because of the e-mails that Catherine sends me. Her Japanese is still horrible, so she writes in French. I have to constantly get out my French dictionary to try and understand what she is telling me. It gets even more complicated when she is telling me about the Digital World. There are many days in which I wish… Anyway, let's go and see the city! I'm sure that there are lots of signs around so I can tell us where we are going. I want to get a look at the Eiffel Tower- it really is amazing. I want to get a lot of pictures of it!" Sora frowned as Tai led the way out of the apartment. As excited as she was to see the Eiffel Tower and all of the other sites and sounds of Paris, she had wanted to talk to Tai and make sure that she kept him as a close friend as well. She wanted to spend time with him and she wanted to _know_ what was going on in his life. He had almost told her something about it, but then he had cut off. She felt a little awkward. She had made sure that she kept in contact with Tai after school had finished, but she didn't know much. She hadn't even met any of his girlfriends after Catherine. They had promised when they had entered high school that they would allow each other to meet their respective boy-or-girlfriends as soon as was possible. Tai knew about Matt, but Sora had known nothing about Tai's girlfriends. And after the way he had cut himself off in the hotel room, she found that she wanted to know.

"Hey Sora, you're pretty quiet. Are you okay?" Tai's concerned voice shook her from her thoughts.

"I'm fine, I was just thinking. We're not as close friends as we used to be, are we? I mean, I just noticed it now. It's like there is a wall there that was never there before. You must have noticed it," he gave her a puzzled glance, but he took his time in replying.

"We've grown up- that's all. As you grow older, you don't have friendships that are as close or strong as those you had in your childhood. It's a well known fact. And the wall that you are talking about is completely necessary. Even best friends should keep things from each other sometimes, if it saves their friendship," he said the last sentence quietly, and she barely heard him. She thought that he had only been talking to himself. She realized that they were standing in the hallway outside of their room. She hadn't meant to make the holiday so serious. She didn't know why she had started talking to him like this so early in the trip. She had only planned to talk to him once they had seen a few sights and thoroughly enjoyed themselves a bit more. Then she could have brought up the topic much more subtly and easily. But it was too late now. She knew that Tai was going to try anything to get out of the awkward situation, so she tried to lighten up.

"You're right. Now let's go and see the city before we have to pay for staying in the hallway," she pushed him to get moving and he grumbled.

"You don't need to push me you know. Gosh, you're becoming more and more like Matt every day- using physical violence as a solution. Next thing we know you'll be playing the harmonica, refusing to show any emotions at all and get hypnotized by weird Digimon into turning against your friends," he joked as he lightly pushed her into a wall, "Don't make it so I have to punch you to keep you sane. It works for Matt, but you might end up with a broken nose or something." She mock glared at him, putting her hands on her hips.

"Excuse me but I am _not_ turning into the way Matt was when he was younger. Besides, he's grown out of that stage and whilst he is still quiet most of the time, he _does_ show emotions. And if I recall, Matt used the same technique on you to keep your ego down quite successfully. I might have to resort to that myself if you don't stop acting as though you are the best," he just held up his hands in defeat and laughed. '_Besides Tai, you're the one who is hiding something. I can see through this little act of yours, and I _will _find out what is wrong with you.'_ Sora promised to herself as they left the hotel, '_You won't be able to hide it for much longer. You can trust me… I just wish that you would see that.'_

"Okay… this sign says that if we go this way, we'll find the Eiffel Tower and stuff. So do you want to go this way?" Tai asked, already half-dragging her in that direction, "I swear that the Eiffel Tower is amazing! When T.K and I were here before it was all lit up at night and it was gorgeous! I only wish that I took a picture of it then."

"Wait a minute… you have told me and Matt a thousand times that you've always wanted to go to Paris and yet… you've already been here! I've mentioned it before this trip, but I never really realized that you've been here before!" Sora was confused. Why did he always say that he always wanted to go to Paris if he had already been? It didn't make much sense.

"When I was here with T.K it was just for a few hours and it was in a localized area. It didn't feel like I had been, so I just pretended that it never really happened. But come on otherwise we'll get trapped within that huge group of tourists coming our way," he pointed to a group of tourists who were wearing the oddest hats that she had ever seen. The hats were like cowboy hats, but they had _corks_ hanging from the rim. Well… only two of the tourists wore them. Some of the others in the group were holding small versions of the German flag, whilst others were holding the British flag. It was a massive group, and Tai and Sora would get caught in it if they didn't hurry. Tai grabbed her hand and pulled her along quickly to make sure that they didn't get lost. Once they were far enough away from the group, he quickly dropped her hand and pretended to study a map of the city that was on the street corner. He couldn't believe that he had grabbed her hand. He knew that it was natural considering the situation, but the thoughts that he had had whilst holding her hand were just… he shouldn't have had them.

"We have to go this way," Tai said after a moment, pointing to his right. Sora could see the top of the tower without consulting a map. She wondered why Tai had even bothered to look at the map. He began walking in that direction, but she could see that his cheeks were slightly red. Was he _blushing_? Maybe he had seen a girl that he liked, or maybe he had seen Catherine and wanted to get away from her. She smiled to herself at his behavior.

'_He looks so cute when he blushes,'_ she thought to herself, '_Wait a minute… am I allowed to think that? I mean… I have Matt. I love Matt more than anything. So am I allowed to think that other guys are cute? Tai is my best friend though, so the normal rules don't apply. And since I know that I love Matt and Tai is just my best friend, then I am allowed to call him cute. See? That problem is easily resolved.'_ She had to admit that even though she and Matt had been dating for a few years, she didn't really know all of the 'rules' associated with being involved in a relationship. She was the digidestined of Love- she knew what Love was, or so she was told- but that didn't help her to sort out the complexity of relationships. She had to admit also that she was a little insecure in her relationship with Matt. She was scared that she would do the wrong thing one day, and that she would be caught out. But it didn't matter now. She was in Paris with her best friend and she was going to enjoy it…

To be continued…

Litanya: I am really sorry that this chapter is late. I am also sorry that it has a lot of thoughts and not much of the holiday. But I wanted to show how… insecure the three of the main characters are. To me their friendship is strong- very strong- but all of the characters have their problems to deal with in the friendship, such as Matt's insecurity, Sora's confused but doesn't realize and Tai is just trying to keep his feelings to himself. By the way, this isn't one of those "Sora realized that she loves Tai and so dumps Matt" type of fic. Relationships are difficult to deal with, and I'm trying to portray my version of what could happen. Anyway, please review and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thanks for reading!


	4. Old 'Friends'

Litanya: Hi again. Sorry that this chapter is late, but I have been very busy getting ready for university, which starts on Tuesday. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I don't own Digimon. Oh, and whilst I remember, I use the Australian way of spelling things- as in I spell colour like that, and not color. So please, if you use the American way, please don't tell me I spell things wrongly, unless it really is wrong in both Aussie and American.

_**The Island Holiday**_

_**Chapter 3: Old 'Friends'**_

The Eiffel Tower had been amazing to see up close. Although Sora had seen pictures of it before, she had never really believed that it was all that magnificent. But when she had actually seen it up close she had quickly changed her mind. She knew now why Tai loved it so much. Their trip to the Eiffel Tower had been very quick- well; they could have stayed longer that is. Sora wanted to wait in line to go up the Tower, but Tai refused.

"_I hate lines," _he had complained, "_Besides; it's much prettier at night. Why don't we go up then?"_ She had ended up agreeing with him. She wasn't sure if she had agreed because she wanted to see it when the city was all lit up or if she had just wanted to stop Tai's complaining. She thought that it could be a mixture of both.

"Hey Sora," she snapped back to the present to a sight which… it didn't shock her, but it was pretty surprising. Tai was awake watching the television. That seemed normal. But the fact was that Sora had just woken up herself. It was eight in the morning on their first full day in Paris. She had thought that she was up early, but by the looks of things Tai had been awake for quite a while.

"What time did you wake up?" she asked him as a way of greeting. He shrugged, his eyes only leaving the screen in front of him for a second.

"I don't know… probably around six, six thirty," she frowned as she realized what she thought could have been the reason why Tai had woken up early.

"Are you sure that couch is comfortable? If that was what woke you, then at least let me take a turn at sleeping on it," the night before they had had a small 'disagreement' on the sleeping arrangements. Sora had argued that they were friends and had shared a double bed before, and so they could share it now, but Tai had pointed out that that had been when they were smaller and that now they were bigger, it just wouldn't work. Sora had then suggested that they take turns sleeping on the couch, but Tai had just explained that Matt would kill him if he didn't sleep on the couch and that the couch in question was almost as comfortable as his bed at home anyway. And so Sora had grudgingly agreed to allow him to sleep on the couch every night. Now she wished that she had kept arguing.

"As I said last night, this couch is comfortable. I always wake up early so don't worry. Besides, this way I can wake up and watch some cartoons before you get up," Sora glanced at the screen and saw a big green blob talking to some children. She didn't understand a word that the blob was saying, but it was still a cartoon. She rolled her eyes and flopped down on the couch next to him.

"So what is this… show anyway?" she wasn't really in the mood to have an argument with him as to what they should watch. Tai shrugged.

"I have no idea. I found this a few minutes ago. It seems to be a show which teaches little kids things… you know; one of those kids shows that teaches kids to count and stuff. At least I think it is. As I have told you before, I don't speak fluent French, I just understand some," she nodded absently, her eyes following the green blob on the screen. The blob seemed to be almost hypnotizing. It said something on the screen, and Sora found herself repeating what it said. Tai blinked. Was Sora being controlled by a cartoon blob? She didn't even seem to notice. He changed the channel and Sora blinked and shook her head.

"What on Earth was that show?" she demanded to know as a couple of newsreaders appeared on the screen. Tai burst out laughing, unable to control himself. Sora's face had been so funny. She was not amused. She glared daggers at him as he struggled to control his laughter, "I do not find this funny Mr. Kamiya. Tell me what that was, now!" He couldn't answer. The laughter was getting the better of him. Without giving any warnings, Sora suddenly flung herself at him, anger burning in her eyes. She attacked him with a cushion from one of the couches and he quickly stopped laughing as the zip on the cushion cover struck his eye.

"Hey! Ouch, that really hurts. I've already told you what that show was. It's not my fault that you are easily manipulated by green blobs!" she stopped hitting him and when she saw that his eye was really red, she rushed to apologise.

"I'm really sorry Tai! I guess that it's just too early in the morning or something. Here, I brought a first aid kit with me. I'll go get it and then I'll fix your eye up for you," she started to move but he quickly stopped her.

"No, it's fine. I brought my own first aid kit- well, Kari slipped it into my bag when I wasn't looking- and so I can look after it myself. I'm not letting you anywhere near my eye!" and he quickly took off to find his suitcase and get the things that he needed. Sora flicked the off switch for the television and the picture faded away. It was then that she realized that she was still in her pajamas, and that she was hungry. Tai was now in the bathroom, so she couldn't get changed, but she decided that she could choose her outfit. Once she had chosen what she wanted to wear- it didn't take her very long because she wasn't really trying to impress anyone- she waited impatiently for Tai to finish fixing his eye. She wanted to go and help him- it _had_ been her fault after all, but she knew that he would decline her help. She didn't really blame him, but she knew that she would fix it faster, and she really wanted to go and have breakfast. When Tai eventually emerged from the bathroom, he saw Sora flash by and within seconds the bathroom door had been closed and locked behind him. He just shrugged. He had decided a long time ago that girls were just plain weird, and he was sticking with that theory.

* * *

Matt tried to hide a yawn as the record company dealers explained some sort of contract with him and the members of his band. The dealer who was speaking had a dry voice, and he only seemed capable of speaking in one tone. He was going on and on about some figures that the company had received in the past few months, and Matt could see that he was not the only one who was struggling to stay awake. He couldn't help sighing quietly to himself as he remembered that he could have been in Paris at that very moment. He missed Sora. He had been looking forward to the holiday for so long, and now that she was in Paris, he was extremely jealous as well. And the fact that this meeting seemed pointless did not help his mood.

'_I'm here for the band. Once we get this deal we will be able to hit the international markets and after that… we could be making the millions. Then I can take Sora to Paris and have a proper holiday,'_ he told himself firmly, but it just didn't seem worth it. The man was still droning on and Matt swore that his drummer was asleep. He hid another yawn and tried to concentrate on what the man was saying. After all, he didn't want to lose this record deal after everything he had given up to earn it.

* * *

Kari hated Mondays. Mondays meant that the weekend was over, and that school would start again. And today was Monday. She sat in her Maths class, eagerly awaiting the bell. Once the bell rang, she would be free. It wasn't that she _hated_ school, it was just that… on Mondays she had only one class with T.K. And that was Maths, a class in which the teacher was so strict that Kari barely dared to even glance at T.K out of the corner of her eye. So basically… it was as though she had no classes with him.

"…and so if you differentiate both sides with respect to 'x' you can easily solve this problem. Now, are there any questions?" not one hand appeared in the air. Most of the class seemed to be asleep with their eyes open. There were a lot of glassy stares and blank looks. The other part of the class seemed to be staring at the clock, eagerly awaiting the bell. Kari considered herself to be in the latter section of the class. A quick glance at T.K found him to be in the first group. His cerulean eyes seemed to have a layer of darker blue covering them. She quickly looked back at the board, but her eyes soon drifted back to the clock, which was positioned above the board on which five equations were written. Kari was about to believe that the bell would never ring and that they would be stuck in Maths forever when a loud siren-like noise filled the air. The entire class breathed a sigh of relief. The bell had rung and they were free to go. The teacher began calling out exercises for them to do for homework, but everyone was busy packing up, and no one was really listening.

"Thank the light that we actually managed to get out of there alive!" T.K exclaimed once they were a safe distance from the Maths classroom, "I thought that I was half-dead by the end of the class. Why does he have to make calculus so boring? It almost felt like a funeral speech." Kari laughed.

"You mean that you actually listened to what he was saying? When I saw you in class you were half-asleep. Don't deny it- I saw your eyes and they don't usually have a dark blue layer. Who taught you to sleep with your eyes open?" he opened his mouth to deny her accusations, but he was cut off when another male voice joined in the conversation.

"It is physically possible to be asleep whilst awake, but the chances of someone like T.K pulling it off are very slim," an amused Ken Ichijouji contributed as he and his girlfriend approached them, "Although if he was in Mr. Chang's class then the chances of T.K doing it are raised by a factor of one hundred."

"Yeah, I love Maths and even I have found it impossible to pay attention in his classes," Yolie Inoue, Ken's girlfriend, added. Ken and Yolie were in the class above Kari and T.K, but the four of them were close friends. Ken was practically a genius and Yolie wasn't far behind him in terms of intelligence. Ken had at one time been their enemy- he had tried to take over the Digital World under the name of the Digimon Emperor- but now he was a firm ally. He held the crest of Kindness and once he had realized that he was being foolish and mean in his goals to control Digimon, the other digidestined found that he was indeed kind. He and Yolie were often together, either debating about some new equations or helping out at the Computer club.

"Hey guys, where are Davis and Cody?" Davis and Cody were the missing part of what was called the '02 digidestined,' or 'the younger digidestined.' Davis was Kari's other best friend besides T.K, and he was also best friends with T.K as well. He reminded Kari a lot of Tai, but at the same time she could spot a lot of differences between the two leaders of the digidestined. But Davis was a lot of fun to be around, usually, and so she did not care what faults he had. Cody was a serious young boy- much more serious than Ken was- who, although he was the youngest of the group, tried to protect them. He was very reliable and he used this trait of his to make sure he was there for his friends.

"They said that they would meet us at the park. Davis muttered something about he had to talk to his soccer coach and Cody has been requested to do a kendo demonstration at assembly tomorrow, so he is arranging that. But they promised that they would meet us at the park by the time we got there," Yolie replied, making a face as she recalled the messages they had given her. Kari decided not to ask what Davis had told the older girl. Yolie and Davis had a bad habit of arguing and fighting with each other, and they also called each other names. Kari thought sometimes that it was a little babyish for their ages, but then again, it was also a part of their personalities, and they never meant what they said.

"Well, we should probably head over there then. It really is a pity that our d3s don't open the gates to the Digital World anymore. I know that it is good that there is peace there but… I miss Gatomon and the others," she didn't know why she had brought up the Digital World. Maybe she had been thinking of her brother too much, or the other digidestined. They all seemed to be on different paths now. They hardly had a meeting now in which everyone attended. They were slowly drifting apart. She wasn't sure that anyone else had noticed. Joe had been the first one to miss meetings. As the oldest he had been the first to enter university, and studying medicine took a lot of work. He had often had lectures when their meetings had been planned. After that, Matt had his band and Sora had tennis. Tai, although reluctant to miss meetings, had his soccer. Mimi had moved to America, and when she moved back she had found an interest in modeling and cookery. Izzy was president of the computer club and he also had to study a lot because of his desire to win a scholarship. And she felt that it would only get worse with time if nothing happened.

"Yeah, if we could meet in the Digital World we could gather the whole team," T.K said, as if he had been reading her thoughts, "But for now the park is going to have to suffice. Maybe we can organize a group meeting when Tai and Sora get back." Kari felt the horrible feeling that she had felt before Tai and Sora had left come back again at T.K's words. She had a bad feeling that something was going to happen, and that she wasn't going to like it. But she just nodded in agreement and continued on to the park. She just hoped that the digidestined survived whatever was coming as a team.

* * *

When Sora emerged from the bathroom she found that it was nine o'clock and that Tai was nowhere to be seen. Her stomach was grumbling because she hadn't eaten, but she refused to go and get breakfast without Tai. After all, he had to order for her.

"Tai, where are you?" she felt a little stupid. She could basically see the entire room anyway, but she couldn't see Tai.

"I'm here," she turned to see him emerge from the… closet. He had been sitting in the closet. She raised an eyebrow in an unspoken question, "I was uh… trying to find something in my bag. I finally managed to find it, but I had to climb into the closet to get it. Here." He handed her a pamphlet which was in Japanese. It was a travel brochure which described the Louvre, a famous museum in Paris, and the Tuileries Garden.

"What is this for?" she asked, reading the pamphlet with interest. She had wanted to see the Louvre for a long time. She wasn't all that interested in art, but she knew that the Louvre was a place where some of the best art in the world was displayed. Tai rolled his eyes and practically pushed her out of the door.

"That's where we are going today, after we eat of course."

"Who says that you are in charge of what we're doing?" he just grinned and took the pamphlet back off her.

"I am in charge because I am the leader. Besides, you said yesterday that you wanted to see the Louvre, so why don't we go today? It's not as though you had planned to go elsewhere, right?" she sighed in defeat and allowed him to lead her out of the hotel. They had breakfast in a café around the corner, a lovely breakfast which mainly consisted of baguettes.

"So, how do we get to the Louvre?" Sora asked him as they left the small café. He took the pamphlet out of his pocket and began to study the map on the back of it. He didn't look overly confident though. Sora was about to suggest that maybe he should ask someone at the hotel for directions, but before she could even open her mouth, a blond teenager appeared, her red cheeks glowing in anger.

"Tai, je…" the rest of what the blond girl was yelling was lost to Sora, as the French words were incredibly foreign to her. She watched as Tai seemed to struggle to understand what this strange girl was yelling. Finally, when the girl stopped for a breath, Tai broke in to stop her.

"Catherine, that really isn't fair. And please try to speak Japanese; Sora doesn't understand a word you're saying and she looks kind of scared. I think that she thinks that you are insane," he was being awfully calm about the entire situation, considering the fact that quite a few French people had stopped to stare at the trio. The blond girl, who Sora now recognized as Tai's ex-girlfriend Catherine, took a breath and lowered her voice.

"I am sorry for the uh… misunderstand? I forget that French is not common in Japan," she then rounded on Tai again, "But I am not sorry for what I said. You deserve it." She then turned to Sora and beamed a smile at her, "Sora it is good to see you again. What uh… what doing you in Paris?" Sora smiled at Catherine's attempt to keep in Japanese. She was doing a lot better than when she had lived in Japan.

"Well, I was supposed to come here with Matt, but his band had a meeting, so Tai came along instead. We are here for a week and we are hoping to see a lot of the sites. We are probably going to go to the Louvre today," Catherine nodded, but she had a weird expression on her face. She turned to Tai and poured out a torrent in French. Tai turned red as Catherine continued, and he shook his head a couple of times. Sora could have sworn that she heard her name a couple of times, and Matt's as well as Tai's. She wondered what the French girl was saying. Finally Tai was allowed to reply. His French was slower and he seemed to struggle a little to find the words, but Catherine seemed to understand. As Tai's French was slower, she did hear her name and Matt's as well. When he had finished explaining whatever it was he was saying Catherine bowed her head and muttered something back to him. He grinned and turned to Sora.

"Sorry about that. I guess that we had a lot of catching up to do in a way," Sora understood to an extent. She thought that maybe they had broken up too quickly, and so they had needed to clarify their reasons or something. She was wrong, but she didn't need to know that.

"Ah, I too am sorry Sora. Now I can help you find the Louvre if you wish. I have nothing to do today and so I uh… I can… guide you," Japanese sounded weird with Catherine's accent, but Sora was just glad that she could understand. She hated not knowing what they were saying. Catherine began to lead them down one of the streets, pointing out some clubs and bars which were famous throughout the world and other little things like that. She explained the history of the city as best as she could. Sometimes she would lapse into French and Tai would have to help with a translation. Not that he understood what Catherine was saying all of the time. Once Catherine pointed to a building and explained something in French. Sora glanced over at Tai for the translation, but he just had a puzzled look on his face.

"They _killed_ people in there?" he asked incredulously. Catherine burst out laughing, and tears came out of her eyes.

"No, no, there were many people kept there. I have no idea how you mixed what I said up with tuè. Tuè means killed by the way," Catherine added for Sora's benefit, "I don't know the Japanese word… they were kept there because they were bad." Sora helped her out.

"Imprisoned. They were imprisoned there- they were not allowed to leave. Am I right?" the blond nodded, still chuckling over Tai's translation mistake. Tai himself just muttered under his breath about French girls and stupid timetables, but he was grinning a little too. Sora was enjoying herself very much. When they eventually arrived at the Louvre they had to line up in a long line. Tai added long lines to the things that he was muttering about, and Catherine and Sora chatted about Japan and the Digital World, purposefully ignoring Tai's complaints.

"It sucks how we can't access the Digital World, doesn't it?" Sora said after Catherine had finished explaining how her Digimon had vanished, "I mean, it probably means that the Digital World is safe, but I can't help wondering how Biyomon is doing. I miss her a lot," Catherine nodded understandingly. She knew what it was like to miss a best friend.

"Fleurmon is my best friend and I miss her a lot, but I am glad that her home is safe. And I know that she is with friends, so that also makes me happy. I still uh… talk to other digidestined and so I have a new… circle of friends," they moved forward in the line and now they could see the place where they could buy their tickets.

"It is good that we can still contact digidestined around the world, but aren't you finding it hard to stay in contact? The Japanese destined are falling apart really. The Digital World seems to be our only connection to each other a lot of the time," Sora turned to Tai and frowned. What was that supposed to mean? He hadn't appeared to have even been listening to their conversation, but now he says something about the destined falling apart? She didn't understand what he meant.

"What do you mean? We still talk to each other a lot," she told him, a little annoyed. Was he suggesting that they were ignoring each other? He seemed startled that she had addressed what he had said. He hadn't meant to say that out loud, but apparently he had. He didn't really feel like explaining what he meant- it had been something that he had only spoken about with Kari.

"I was… careless in my choice of words. Anyway, we can buy the tickets now," he was right. They had somehow managed to get to the front of the line. They purchased their tickets and within minutes they were wandering around the large museum. Although he wasn't interested in art at all- every time his art teacher had told them that they were learning about the history of art he had managed to get thrown out of the classroom- he found that the museum was actually quite fascinating. Catherine had been to the Louvre many times and as she led them around she added her own commentaries about the paintings. By the time they had finished looking around he was starting to remember why he had had a lot of fun when he had dated her.

"So, what do you guys want to do for lunch? I know of a good restaurant nearby," Catherine suggested, her hair flying in the breeze. They were back outside the museum. They had only spent three hours there, which wouldn't seem a long time for most museum-lovers, but they had found that three hours was quite enough time to see everything and not get bored. And so now they had the problem of what to do for lunch. Catherine seemed intent on being their guide for the day- if not for the week- and as she seemed to know good places, they had no problems with letting her take them places.

"Lead the way Catherine," Tai grinned, "We trust you, and so we will follow you." Catherine smiled, and Sora could have sworn that she saw an evil glint in the blonde's eyes.

"Do you trust me to order for you as well?" even Tai seemed to sense that she was up to something, even though she looked perfectly innocent.

"I suppose it couldn't do much harm," he didn't sound very certain however. He remembered one time in Japan where he had ordered a 'traditional' Japanese meal for Catherine. She had refused to speak with him for a week. He hoped that she had forgotten about that. Sora nodded too.

"I want to taste some real French food. The baguette is really nice, but I can get that in Japan at the bakery. I want to be adventurous and try everything!" Tai looked at her as if she was crazy.

"If I learnt anything when I met Catherine it was that you should never say crazy things like that to her. She will take you up on your challenge," Tai warned her a little too late. Catherine's eyes were sparkling now.

"I know just what to order for both of you. Here's the restaurant now," they were ushered to a table for three and once they were allowed to order, Catherine spoke in rapid French. She hoped that her ex-boyfriend couldn't understand her. She made sure that she spoke quickly so that he would have less chance. Even so she saw his eyes widen as she mentioned the word frog. Sora was just looking at her curiously. Catherine liked Sora. She was dependable and she had a good sense of responsibility. The only thing that Catherine didn't like about Sora was the fact that the auburn-haired Japanese girl unknowingly held Tai's heart in her hand, and she was unconsciously twisting it. That had been what her conversation with Tai had been about earlier. She had known that he had loved someone else whilst he had been dating her, but she hadn't figured out who it was until that morning. And she understood everything now. She felt a little ashamed at the many times that she had insulted and hurt him now, but at the time she had been upset and angry. She had thought that he had just been using her, that he didn't care for her at all, but that he had wanted to get someone's attention by using her. But it hadn't been like that. Still, she had to get revenge on him for making her eat that 'sushi' or whatever it was called. Once the waiter had taken their orders and left, she settled back in her chair with a small, satisfied smile.

"So, what are we going to be eating?" Sora asked. Catherine just smiled a little mysteriously.

"I'll tell you once you have eaten it," she promised. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Tai's face grow a little paler. He had told her that when he had ordered her the sushi.

"Okay," Sora seemed to accept that as an answer and again they just began to chat about whatever they could think of. Tai joined in on the conversation now, but he was still eyeing Catherine warily. Then the food came.

"This is quite yummy. It tastes like chicken," Sora and Tai had received the same meals. The food looked a little strange, but they were both hungry and so they had began to eat as soon as they could. Catherine had an amused smile on her face.

"What do you think Tai?" he didn't answer. He too had taken a bite, and he found it quite nice. But Sora's comment had reminded him of something he had heard in his French class.

"_Now frog's legs are a delicacy in France. Many people say that they taste like chicken," there was a disgusted noise from the class. French people ate frog's legs? That was disgusting!_

"_How can they eat frog's legs? Frog's are slimy creatures!" a girl called out from the front row. The teacher sighed, obviously annoyed at the immaturity of her class._

"_It's just like us Japanese eat sushi. Quite a few people find the idea of raw fish disgusting too. But frog's legs are really nice- they taste like chicken, but with an extra something to them."_

Tai's fork dropped onto his plate and the two girls exchanged worried frowns.

"Are you okay Tai?" Sora asked. He blinked.

"Why did you order frog's legs for us?" he asked Catherine in way of a response. Sora paled now. Catherine just laughed.

"That was payback for you making me eat sushi. And Sora wanted to try something French. Come on, you guys like it! And it's pretty expensive, and so, as I'm paying, I will be offended if you don't eat it," both Tai and Sora began to eat again.

"You don't need to pay for this- you are already helping by taking us around the city," Tai mumbled as he looked at his plate. Catherine just waved her hand dismissively.

"My father is a millionaire. I'm paying. Besides, you guys have given me something to do this week. I'll be your guide from now until you leave. You can trust me to take you to fun places…" Tai and Sora exchanged glances. They had the feeling that this was going to be an 'interesting' week…

End of Chapter 3

Litanya: Well… there is this chapter. It is slightly longer than the others, so I hope that makes up for the lateness. Anyway, please review- I appreciate reader feedback! My next update will be a little late- probably between Saturday- Wednesday next week Australian time, as university is starting and I have other commitments. Anyway, see you soon (hopefully!)


	5. Pretending

Litanya: Here is the next chapter. I don't own Digimon. I'm too tired to say much else.

_**The Island Holiday**_

_**Chapter 4: Pretending**_

Sora was very happy that they had a personal tour guide for their trip, but she found that Catherine was very… irritating. It was the day after their trip to the Louvre and they had spent the morning on the river Seine, with Catherine pointing out the famous buildings along the river's banks. The trio was now heading towards a fun-fair that Catherine knew about. As they traveled, Sora tried to find out what exactly she hated about the French girl. Catherine was happily chatting to Tai about something, speaking half in Japanese and half in French. Tai was responding to her in Japanese, so Sora knew that they were talking about some girl who had gone to Odaiba High, but she couldn't understand exactly what Catherine was saying. That irritated her a little, but it wasn't that which caused her peculiar feelings toward Catherine. She had thought that it could have been that at first, but Tai had been translating for her most of the time- his claims that he knew only simple French were now ignored as she knew that they weren't true- and so she knew that this communication problem was not the main problem. Sora watched her two companions as they walked along. Catherine was explaining something excitedly to Tai- this time in full French- and he was listening attentively, and interrupting her with questions when she paused. They weren't ignoring Sora; they were just too caught up in their own conversation. And they both looked very content to keep their conversation going. It was then that she realised what was wrong with her. She was jealous of Catherine. Before Catherine had come along, she had been the only female who had actually tried to understand Tai and become close friends with him. That excluded his sister Kari of course. But when Catherine had come along, Tai had had someone other than Sora to turn to. Of course he always had had Matt, Kari and the other digidestined as well, but before Catherine he had almost always talked to Sora about his problems. But since Catherine had come along he had closed up and as a result Sora felt that she did not know him as much anymore. Now Catherine knew him better than she did, and it really irritated her.

"Uh Sora… are you okay?" she realised with a start that they had arrived at their destination, and that Tai had disappeared. Catherine was looking at her with a slightly concerned expression. Sora smiled to try to reassure her that she was okay.

"Yeah, I was just lost in thought for a second there. Where's Tai?" Catherine raised an eyebrow.

"You must have been lost in thought if you did not hear Tai tell you that he was going to get our tickets. The line is pretty long so he might be a while. Do you want to talk about what is on your mind? It seems to be uh… bothering you… a lot," she stumbled a little over the big words, but she managed to say what she wanted to and Sora smiled at her achievement.

"It's kind of complicated. How do you know Tai so well? I thought that you two had a messy break-up," she hadn't meant to say that. It was a little too close to the topic which she had been thinking about, and she had wanted to get her mind off of that topic. But she couldn't take it back now.

"Uh… I would not think that what you mean by 'messy' really applies here. I did uh… dislike Tai for a while but I still kept in contact with him. I sent him e-mails in which I told him I hated him and stuff but I did not really mean it. He would send me e-mails with apologies in them- although it was not really his fault- and so we kept in touch. But I knew him from when I was in Japan and he has not really changed. You know him better than I know him- you just do not realise this yet. You know him better than anyone and you will always know him better, although some of us may wish that we knew him like you do," Sora was confused. She didn't really understand how she knew Tai the best, but she knew what Catherine meant by her last phrase. And she did not like it.

'_Why can't I just be happy for the two of them? They are obviously very close and I will be surprised if they are not a couple by the end of this holiday. They both appear to care for each other so much… so why do I feel as though something is wrong? Why do I feel as though something is being stolen from my heart? Tai is my best friend. I love Matt. Tai getting a girlfriend should not get to me. He's probably had hundreds of girlfriends and it hasn't bothered me before. So why now?'_ she found that she couldn't answer that question, so she made up an excuse, '_It's just because I miss Matt and seeing these two patch up their relationship is making me miss him more. That's why I hate them becoming close. And being in 'the city of love' really doesn't help. But that is all there is to it. I just miss Matt.'_ But even as she convinced herself that was the reason, she knew that it was wrong. She had no idea what was really bothering her, but she put all thoughts of it out of her head.

"I'm not sure what you mean. You seem to know Tai a lot more than I do at the present time. Anyway, here he comes with the tickets. The line wasn't as long as it looked," Catherine turned to see that Tai was indeed returning with the tickets. But the line was still as long as it had been when he had joined it.

"How did you get those tickets so quickly? Catherine demanded to know. Some of the people still in the line had been waiting when the trio had arrived at the fair. Tai just shrugged and grinned.

"There was another line over there for tourists, but the sign was partially obscured by the French flag, so I think that people thought that it was a line for French locals. As a result the line was short and so I could get the tickets," he explained as he handed the girls a ticket each, "Besides, did you really think that I was going to stand in a line for half an hour whilst you two just stood here?" Sora knew that he had cut the line somehow. There was no flag in sight, and so he must have pushed in front of someone. But they had the tickets now and as no one was rushing after them screaming about disregarding the rules, she felt that they were safe. Besides, she wanted to ride on the rides. So she kept silent and followed Tai and Catherine into the fair, her thoughts now dwelling on what ride she could persuade Tai to go on with her…

* * *

Matt unlocked the door to his apartment- well; it was technically his father's apartment- and walked in, sighing with relief as he realized he was home. He had spent the day in a meeting with the record company all day and he just wanted to sit in a chair and watch his favourite shows. He wanted to do anything but think about music. He loved music, but listening to it now would only make him think about record deals and after the meetings that day, deals were the last things that he wanted to think about. He was about to turn the television on and relax when the phone rang. His eyes automatically went to his watch. It was too early for Sora to be calling him and he seriously considered letting the answer machine pick up. But the ringing of the phone was also starting to get to him. He tossed his television remote onto the couch and picked the phone up with the intention of telling whoever was on the other end that he was busy.

"_Hey Matt, how are you?"_ it was T.K. He couldn't hang up on his little brother. He eyed the television a little wistfully before he walked out of the room and into the kitchen so that he wouldn't be tempted to turn on a show.

"I'm just a little tired from today's meeting, but other than that I'm fine. How are you? Did you pass that test that you told me about the other day?" he sat down at the kitchen table and began drawing patterns on a piece of paper that was lying in front of him. For some reason he always had trouble staying still when he was on the phone.

"_Yeah, I passed, but not by much. I was lucky that Ken had helped me study for this one otherwise I would have failed. I uh… I actually called because I have a question and I know that you can help me because you were in a similar situation as I am,"_ T.K sounded very nervous, and he had an idea why. He didn't really know if he could help, but he would try.

"Well ask away and I'll help you if I can," there was a pause before T.K answered. Matt almost laughed, but then again, he would have done the same if he had been in T.K's position. It was always hard to bring up the topic of love with a sibling, whether it was older or younger.

"_Well… you see… IwanttoaskKarionadateandIdon'tknowwhattodo,"_ Matt blinked. He had vaguely understood what that sentence was, but he wasn't completely sure that he had heard it right.

"So you want to ask Kari out and you don't know what to do, right? Just ask her. She won't bite you."

"_I know. I am pretty sure that she will say yes, but there is the problem of Davis,"_ now Matt was confused. T.K had said that he had been a similar situation, but he had been able to ask Sora out with no problems. He didn't know anyone who claimed to love Sora, so it was all okay. T.K's situation was not as black and white as his had been, and he didn't really know what advice to give.

"I have no idea what you should do about Davis," he could almost see the confused expression on T.K's face through the silence that followed. What was T.K so puzzled about?

"_But you had a similar situation. How did you handle the fact that Tai also cared for Sora? You must have done something,"_ it was Matt's turn to be confused. He hadn't done anything about Tai. Tai's feelings had been irrelevant- he only cared for Sora as a best friend, and so it had been okay for Matt to ask her out. And Tai had never said anything to challenge that.

"What do you mean? Tai is her best friend, so my situation is completely different to yours."

"_But Tai was in love with Sora and so our situations are similar. Did Tai just give up on his feelings because you were dating Sora, or because you talked to him, or was it just because he fell out of love with her? I need to know so I can figure out how to deal with Davis,"_ Matt felt as though his world had been turned upside down. Since when had Tai been in love with Sora? He hadn't breathed a word about it to Matt, and he hadn't acted differently towards Sora at all. Matt was sure that his younger brother was wrong.

"I think that you have your wires crossed or something… Tai has never been in love with Sora, and I did talk with him about asking Sora out before I asked her, but I never had to compete with him for her, because he didn't want a relationship with her," Tai would have said something if he had been in love with Sora, wouldn't he? Tai was loud and confident- sometimes too confident- and he would have voiced his feelings without a second thought if he had had any. But he had said nothing. And to Matt, that meant that Tai had not minded at all.

"_But Kari said… uh… never mind. Anyway, I'd better go and call Kari. I guess that I will deal with Davis the way that you unknowingly dealt with Tai. I'll talk to you later,"_ and he hung up without letting Matt get a chance to speak. If Kari had said that Tai was in love with Sora then… Matt shook his head to get those thoughts out of his mind. T.K had been wrong. That could be the only reason for it. There was no way that he would have missed noticing that Tai was in love with Sora. He walked back into the living room and jumped onto the couch. His favourite show was on and he needed to escape reality for a while. Life was just too damn confusing at times.

* * *

"…_you accidentally told Matt that my brother was in love with Sora? How could you do that? I told you not to tell anyone!" _T.K cringed as his girlfriend grew angry. He had thought that Matt had known about Tai's feelings, but obviously he had been wrong.

"Well how was I supposed to know that Matt didn't know? With the way that the three of them were acting, I thought that Matt and Tai had talked it out or something. Tai's feelings were so obvious that you would have had to be on the moon to miss them. I thought that my brother was more observant than that," he truly had thought that. Matt normally noticed these things and that was part of the reason why his band was so popular. Matt had a great talent for expressing feelings, and he had written songs that he had based on his own feelings, and the feelings of those around him. T.K was sure that one of Matt's songs had been based on Kari and himself- it was about young love that was so obvious and happy- and so he knew that Matt understood his friends and their emotions. So why had he missed the fact that Tai loved Sora?

"_I think that Matt missed it because he didn't want it to be true. I think that if he searches himself, deep down he knows that Tai loves her. But because he loves her, he wants to ignore that because he also treasures his friendship with Tai. I read about a similar case somewhere on the internet. Two best friends liked the same girl. One of the guys mentioned his 'love' first, and the other stayed quiet. The first guy ended up having a relationship with the girl, but after a few years they broke up. The two best friends remained best friends, but their friendship seemed to strengthen after the couple broke up. It was then that the first guy realized that his friend also loved the girl. The second guy ended up marrying the girl, but the important thing is that the first guy realized that he had known about his friend's feelings the whole time- he had just refused to recognize that he knew. It's a very complicated situation, and I hate having to watch Tai deal with it. He needs his own happiness,"_ T.K felt really bad. It was because of his brother that her brother could not be happy. He felt torn between the two of them. After all, in the Digital World, he had asked Tai to be his brother too.

"Wasn't Tai really close to Catherine? They dated for a while didn't they? I thought that he was in love with her," he tried to cheer her up, but he knew that it wouldn't work. She worried about Tai almost as much as Tai worried about her. And Tai's relationship with Catherine hadn't worked out. But Catherine lived in Paris, so maybe they would meet up again and solve the problems they had had…

"_No, he never loved her. That's the reason why they broke up. She figured out that he loved someone else. I don't know if she realized that he loved Sora, but she knew that he didn't love her, despite his protests. He told me that he felt really evil after every date that he had with Catherine, because he lied to her so much. When they broke up she was so angry with him… most of her e-mails were spent saying how much she hated him. No, he has to find someone else. A relationship with Catherine just wouldn't work…"_

* * *

"Go Tai! I know that you can get this shot!" Catherine called out encouragingly from his side. He was at a games booth at the fair. It was a basketball throw, and if he shot a goal he would win a giant bear. He personally didn't want a giant bear, but Catherine did, and so he found that he wanted to try and get it for her. He had learnt several things that morning. The first thing that he had learned was, sadly, that Sora was still in love with Matt. The second thing that he had learnt was that he had decided to move on, despite his heart's protests that he was in love with Sora. The third thing he had discovered was that Catherine was really fun to be around. Okay, so he had learnt that when he had dated her, but it had been reinforced that morning. She understood him; she understood what he was going through. And she wanted to help. She was also very beautiful. He didn't know if he was 'falling for her,' but being with her definitely lessened the hurt he felt from knowing that Sora loved Matt.

"He's going to miss. Basketball isn't his sport," Sora commented calmly from her position next to the excited Catherine. He poked his tongue out at her before turning back to the ring. All he had to do was get the ball through the ring, and then Catherine would be happy. And Sora would be wrong. That last point seemed almost as important as the first. He knew that it was petty, but he couldn't help it. She was hurting him without realizing it, and he could never let her know that it was happening. All he had to do was concentrate, just like he did with soccer. He just had to hold his wrist correctly and visualize the ball going through the hoop and-

"Yay! I knew that you could do it Tai!" Catherine squealed excitedly before giving him a hug. As Catherine continued to jump around and squeal- Sora had told her to calm down but she wouldn't- Tai collected his prize and passed it to her.

"Here you go, I got this for you," he handed her a pink flower-like soft toy that he had seen her eyeing up when they were looking at the prizes that he could win. Her eyes softened and she stopped jumping around for a second.

"Thank you. How did you know that I wanted this one?" he just laughed and winked.

"I guess that we just have a special connection or something," he knew that he was flirting with her a lot, but he wasn't sure if it was to make Sora jealous or because he truly liked Catherine. It didn't help that she always flirted back.

"I'm going to go and get a drink. I'll be back in a few minutes," Sora said loudly. He jumped. He had almost forgotten that she was there. Almost. Catherine smiled up at him for a second.

"Why did we break up? I mean… I remember the reason, but we are both hurting because the ones we love do not love us. Well… you love Sora, but she doesn't love you, and I love you and you don't love me. But we could pretend, couldn't we? It's better than being alone," it was true, and that was what Tai hated. He hated the fact that Sora wasn't in love with him, and he hated the fact that he was causing Catherine pain because he couldn't 'love' her. So he said what he felt was the only thing he could say.

"I don't see why not…"

To be continued…

Litanya: I am sorry that this is so late and relatively short. Uni is taking up more energy than I though it would and so I haven't had much time to write. And I have too many other commitments. Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this and please review.


	6. Third Wheels

Litanya: Hey guys, I'm sorry that it has taken so long for me to write. Some of the flashback (only during the flashback though- not before it) in this chapter is based on personal experience (I've always wanted to say that!) and so feel free to make fun of it (I do all of the time). Anyway, I don't own Digimon and yeah, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

_**The Island Holiday**_

_**Chapter 5: Third Wheels**_

He sighed as he tried to make himself comfortable on the couch. He loved the couch- it usually was very easy to sleep on- but ever since he had agreed to "date" Catherine it hadn't been easy to sleep. He tried to blame the couch for it, but he knew that it was just his conscience that was bothering him.

'_Why do I feel like dating Catherine is wrong? She knows and accepts the fact that I am not in love with her, and it was her choice. I'm not lying to her. So why can't I sleep?'_ he opened his eyes and stared at the red light that the television emitted constantly. He had already suffered two nights without sleep since he had gotten back together with Catherine, and it had only been several cups of strong coffee that had kept him awake throughout the day. It hadn't been this bad when Catherine had first asked him out. Yes, she had asked him. He knew that everyone thought that he had asked her, but he hadn't been bothered telling them the truth. After all, he knew that they wanted him to get a girlfriend who they could all approve of. And they all liked Catherine. But he hadn't been very happy about accepting it. In fact, he hadn't even realised that she was asking him out on a date until it was too late to say no. How was he supposed to know that 'do you want to go out with me somewhere on the weekend?' was an invitation for a date? And then there had been the date itself…

_Flashback_

"_Hey, sorry I'm late, my thingy that I had today ran half an hour late," she just shrugged and greeted him with a smile._

"_It's okay. At least you messaged me and told me that you were going to be late. Anyway… as for today I was hoping that we could see a movie and then maybe we could go to this concert that I heard about at a local bar. Is that okay with you?" he didn't really know what to say. He would feel bad if he said no right out- he wasn't all that comfortable with the idea of a date at that moment because he still cared for Sora- but he really couldn't stay out late. He had an early soccer match the next morning and his parents had given him a curfew. Normally he would have ignored the curfew, but due to the situation he was glad that his parents had decided to set one._

"_Yeah, the movie sounds good. But I don't know about the concert… my parents have set me a curfew and if the concert is hard to get to… but the movie definitely sounds good," she looked a little disappointed, but she began to lead the way to the movie theater._

"_It's okay. If we can't get to the concert then we should get something to eat or take a walk or something. Hey, look at that artwork over there, isn't it cool?" they walked to the theater, chatting casually. Tai found himself grinning and talking as he usually did with friends and he was glad that he was able to act naturally. The conversations were usually quite short and never really seemed to have substance. He knew that it was a petty thing, but he hated conversations like this. He knew that they barely knew each other and so they were using the conversations to find out more, but really… did it matter if the streets were busy or that they could have caught a bus to the movies? They arrived at the theater and were going up the escalator when Catherine asked him something that he didn't know how to answer._

"_Are you free next Saturday? It's one of my friends' birthdays and there's going to be a big party. Do you want to come with me?" he agreed without thinking about it. After all, he _was _supposed to be dating her, and so he had to act like it. But he wished that he was out with Sora instead._

"_Yeah, I think I can come. I have a 10pm curfew, but I will be able to come for the early part of it I think," they arrived at the movie theater and after choosing the movie that came on first, they went in to watch it. It was an action movie, which usually he would have liked, but it also had a few sex scenes in it. And as he was on his first ever date… it just didn't appeal to him. Also, the violence was very graphic and although he generally liked action films, this one started so slowly that he was bored of it before it had even properly begun. Halfway through the movie Catherine grabbed his hand and started to play with it. She didn't seem to be concentrating on the movie, but Tai kept his eyes on the screen. He was quietly panicking. What was he supposed to do? He tried to act naturally- as though he was just watching a movie- but he knew that she was disappointed somehow. He had done something wrong. He knew that he should have acted more interested in her, but he was really uncomfortable. He had only agreed to the date once he had figured that it was a date because he wanted to see if he could get over Sora. So far it wasn't working._

"_Did you enjoy the movie?" Catherine asked as they exited the theater, "I thought that it was pretty good. What do you think?" He was so busy almost-panicking over the fact that she still clung to his hand that he almost missed the question. When had he gotten so nervous, so uncomfortable? He had never had many problems before with girls- he was always comfortable with people- until now. Maybe it was just because he was scared that he would hurt her or something, because he was still getting over the fact that Sora wasn't in love with him._

"_I don't know… the ending was so unrealistic. He killed all of those people for no reason and yet he gets to go home and eat dinner with a family which perfectly understands this? I think that was a bit too unrealistic," he saw her smile drop a little and he knew that she was disappointed with his reaction, "But other than that it was a great movie." Her smile returned. It was such a complicated balance. He loved to tell the truth- he tried to tell it all of the time- but he hated hurting people more and so he was forced to lie. And he just wasn't comfortable with that._

"_Hey, why don't we go for a walk through the park now? I mean, you have to be home soon and we should probably give the concert a miss," he looked at his watch and wished that it was time for him to leave. Catherine was good company, but only when she was acting like a friend, not a girlfriend. But he had dug this hole and now he was stuck. They wandered into the park and at a quiet spot next to a pond Catherine stopped. Before he knew what was going on, she wrapped her arms around his waist and put her head on his shoulder. He froze. He could handle holding hands with her. He could handle talking to her and seeing a movie with her. But he couldn't handle a hug. It was stupid. He hugged girls all of the time- Sora, Mimi and Kari were all girls after all. Catherine was looking at him with an expression which quite frankly scared him. He felt as though she was the hunter and he was the prey. They stayed like that for a few seconds before he pulled away quickly._

"_I'm sorry…" her face crumpled- he was sure that it did. He felt that he had to explain, but he wasn't happy about it, "It's just that I've never had a girlfriend before and whilst I have had many female friends… this is a bit different." She nodded as though she understood._

"_You've never had a girlfriend before? Well, okay, I understand. Let's walk some more," they continued on along the path, talking about mundane things such as whether or not pushing the lights at the traffic lights would make them change faster. Catherine stopped them a couple of times along the way to hug him, but the result was always the same. He tried to get over his discomfort, but he couldn't. Sora's face kept on flashing at him whenever they stopped walking. Finally he muttered that he had to get home and they began walking to Tai's apartment building. Catherine pulled him to stop when they were halfway there._

"_What's up?" he asked her, seeing that she had yet another strange expression on her face. She pulled him into yet another hug, but he sensed that she wanted something more this time. He tried not to stiffen, but he knew that he failed._

"_Can I kiss you?" he couldn't really say no to such a direct question, could he? The possibility did cross his mind, but he felt that he had disappointed her enough already._

"_Sure," he smiled. The kiss lasted only a few seconds and it was really… not bad, but it just didn't help him feel comfortable at all. To him, the date had been a disaster, but for some reason he knew that she wasn't going to give up on him. And he didn't know how to feel about that. He was glad to get home._

_End of Flashback_

Their dates had gotten better as time went on, and he had become more comfortable around her, but still it hadn't been ideal. And then she had broken up with him. He had been relieved, but at the same time he had been sad. He had grown to love her in a way- not as much as he loved Sora, but he had loved her. Now he had a second chance with her, but he just could not get used to it. And he was sure that Sora felt uncomfortable around them, which was only making his guilt worse. He sighed and sat up, deciding to forget about sleep. He pulled out a torch and pulled a book out from under the couch. It was a soccer book that outlined the finer points of the game, but even though he was reading it, he had no idea what it was saying.

"Tai are you awake?" he jumped and dropped the book as Sora's voice disrupted his disarrayed thoughts.

"Uh… yeah I am. I can't sleep for some reason. Why are you still awake?" there was a soft rustle as Sora moved and then in a few seconds she appeared, shuffling towards the couch. He moved over so she could join him on the couch. Her short hair was slightly tousled, but she looked wide awake.

"I can't believe we leave here in two days' time… it feels as though we have barely done anything," she avoided his question and hoped that she sounded as though she was answering it. She hadn't been able to sleep because she was confused. Why was she so jealous whenever she saw Tai with Catherine? She supposed that it was because she missed her own boyfriend, but sometimes, like when she was trying to sleep, she had a niggling feeling that she was wrong. She felt left-out. That wasn't the entire problem either, but this was supposed to be her holiday with Tai and yet she felt as though she was just the third wheel. Of course she was happy that they had gotten back together- although she didn't really know how Tai felt about it- but it had been rather sudden. Sure, they had been flirting with each other, but she had only been gone for five minutes and they were together. It irritated her.

"It has been an eventful holiday in some ways, and a quiet one in others. But we've been to the Louvre and we have seen the Eiffel Tower and we've been to that fair and we've seen the Seine and we have done a lot of things," he pointed out. He was right of course, but she didn't want to admit it. They had done a lot of things, but most of the time Catherine had been there too. She sighed quietly to herself. She had to learn to share her best friend. She had never met any of Tai's other girlfriends and so she had never really had to 'share' him before.

"You're having a lot of good luck this past week, aren't you? Firstly you get to come to Paris, and now you get your girlfriend back. I'm really happy that this holiday is turning out this way," she wanted to know how he felt. He had been acting strangely before the holiday, and he had been acting the same during this holiday. She wanted to know why. Now, in the middle of the night, was her chance to talk with him.

"Yeah, I suppose that it has been pretty good," was it her imagination or did he sound unenthusiastic about the situation? It must have been her imagination. He and Catherine looked happy together. They _were_ happy together. She couldn't let some petty jealousy cloud the truth.

"What do you think of Paris? Do you like it here? Remember, you could end up living here," okay, it definitely wasn't her imagination this time. He stiffened. Then again, it had been because she had hinted that he might have to make a commitment and guys were not always happy with making commitments. She was a fool.

"Paris is a beautiful city. Odaiba is better however. Paris is a bit crowded for my liking," she frowned. She didn't know how to interpret that. Was he considering moving to the city? Of course not. Not for a while at least. He wouldn't abandon her, would he?

"Just promise me that you will always stay in contact with me and tell me if you are going to leave, okay?" he seemed a little surprised at that, but he nodded. She was glad that the torch he held was aimed more at him than at her. She could read his expressions well, but he would have difficulty reading hers.

"I promise that I will tell you if I am going to leave you in any way, shape or form. Why are you so nervous about it all of a sudden?"

"It just occurred to me that she lives in Paris, that's all. And I know that before this holiday you and I were drifting apart and yeah… I just don't want anything to happen to our friendship. So make sure that you tell me," this was it. Her big gamble. She just hoped that they could talk about what was happening now.

"I will tell you, but what do you mean when you say that we were drifting apart before this holiday?" she knew that he knew what she meant. He just didn't want to admit that their friendship wasn't as strong as it had been.

"We haven't talked properly for ages. I know that we have seen each other practically every day, but you seem to be a little distant. Is something wrong? I mean… we used to talk to each other all of the time about anything and yet now we never really talk about anything serious. Do you know why?" he looked a little uncomfortable. He definitely knew. But why was he so hesitant to tell her? Did he dislike her that much? Or did he just not trust her anymore?

"I guess… well, both you and Matt are my best friends and so I guess it is just a little weird that the two of you are dating. I mean, it's good and all but I guess sometimes… sometimes I feel a little left out if you know what I mean and so I don't talk to you as much now. I have had to make some new close friends and so I guess I talk to them now," she hadn't expected him to be so honest about it. Little did she know that he was only telling her half of the problem. He sighed and looked at the ground, avoiding her eyes. He didn't want her to know that he was keeping things from her.

"I never thought about that," she said softly, "I forgot that you might have reason to feel so left out. I am so sorry… I never meant to leave you out of anything!" She felt so horrible. How could she have done that to him? She recalled a few times during their last year of high school when she and Matt hadn't even bothered to meet Tai at lunch because they had wanted to be alone. They had practically abandoned him once a week and yet he had remained their close friend. And here she was complaining because she felt that Catherine and Tai were leaving her out. She had no right to complain. She could not believe that she had acted like that so unconsciously and had forced him to have to find other friends. She knew had known that she had left him out a little, but she didn't realise the extent to which she had pushed him away.

"Hey, it's not your fault! Besides, I would never have met some of my friends if it hadn't happened. You and Matt make a great couple and I would feel horrible if I intruded on you guys all of the time. But I haven't been having long discussions with you because I know that the time you and Matt have together is precious and short, and I have other people who I can talk to. However, you and Matt are my best friends and nothing is going to change that, okay?" she nodded and he smiled. Then he yawned. The nights without sleep were catching up to him quickly now. He felt as though he could fall asleep with his eyes open. Sora must have caught his mood because she gave him a quick hug before standing.

"I promise that I will never leave you out ever again. Now we had better get some sleep. We have to be up early tomorrow and you look tired enough as it is," he had fallen asleep before she had finished speaking. She muttered something under her breath about his sleeping habits before she crept over to him and removed the torch from his hand. Then she decided that she should get some sleep herself. After all, they only had one full day left to be in Paris before they had to go home.

* * *

Matt drummed his fingers on the table-top as he waited for his close friend Izzy Izumi to order their drinks. Matt had finally finished closing his record deal and he had decided to go out for coffee with his young genius friend to celebrate. His mind wandered to his girlfriend and his best friend. Sora had called him every day to tell him what was going on in Paris. According to Sora, Tai had gotten back together with that French girl- Catherine. He had asked Kari earlier that day if it was true, but all Kari had said was that it was. She hadn't elaborated on anything else. He had asked her if Tai loved Sora, but she wouldn't say anything else except for saying that of course Tai loved her- she was his best friend after all. It was very frustrating for Matt. He wanted to know what was going on. He wanted to know if he was hurting his best friend. He wouldn't stop dating Sora because of this, but he needed to talk to Tai. He needed to know if Tai was all okay with everything.

"Uh… Matt? Are you okay?" Izzy had returned to their table, holding two take-away cups of chi tea. The blonde had been so lost in thought that he hadn't even noticed. Izzy set one of the cups in front of him before taking the other seat at the table.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. I… do you think that Tai has feelings for Sora?" the genius across from him looked a little confused. It was a weird expression to see- Izzy barely ever got confused.

"You mean you didn't know? We all thought that you and Tai had discussed the whole situation. We were just too scared to bring it up in case you didn't know about it. Of course Tai has feelings for Sora- or at least he had feelings for her before you started dating her. He seems to have gotten over her- Catherine seemed to divert his attention from Sora- but he definitely had feelings for her at one point," Matt was stunned. Was he the only one who hadn't consciously known? If Izzy had noticed then it had to have been obvious- Izzy wasn't overly observant of people's feelings after all- and if Izzy knew, Joe and Mimi probably knew too. It seemed as though he and Sora were the only ones who hadn't known.

"I only found out the other day when T.K accidentally told me. Does this make me a horrible friend?"

"Of course not. Tai didn't want you to know about it, and Joe, Mimi and I only talked about it among ourselves. He was acting a little strangely at times, that was all. But Catherine brought him out of it. I saw Kari today and she told me that Tai and Catherine are a couple again. Isn't that cool?" when Matt didn't respond, Izzy sighed and leaned forward a little, "Look, Tai wasn't all that obvious about it. He really tried to keep it a secret, especially when he was around you and Sora. Besides, you had your own feelings to figure out, and that can't have been easy." Matt shook his head a little and took a sip of his drink.

"Ah, it doesn't matter. I'll talk to him when he gets back and it'll all get sorted out. Did you know that Tai speaks French? That was how he managed to ask Catherine out in the first place," the conversation turned to more general topics, but Matt didn't forget what he had said that he would do. He did mean to talk to Tai, and he would. When Tai got back, they needed to have a long, long chat…

To be continued…

Litanya: I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. I know that it seems to be a bit whiny… well, to me it did, but the rest of the fic is better, I promise! Well… maybe not the next chapter, but the chapter after that. You see… I actually never planned the holiday part of the fic until now so… yeah. Anyway, please review and I hope to see you all next chapter!


	7. The Realisation

Litanya: I don't own Digimon. I am sorry that this chapter is so late, but life has been pretty hectic at the moment. Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this chapter.

_**The Island Holiday**_

_**Chapter 6: The Realisation**_

"Do you have to leave tomorrow?" Catherine asked him quietly as they sat next to the heated pool of the hotel. Sora was up in the hotel room, on the phone to Matt, and so the couple had decided to leave her in peace. They sat at the side of the pool, dangling their legs into the water. Catherine's head was on his shoulder and he had one arm casually wrapped around her shoulders. The pool was virtually empty- it was a cold day and swimming just wasn't on the agenda for most people.

"Yes, I have to go home at some point. And the sooner I go home the sooner I can come back if I need to," she sighed. She wanted him to stay. She truly did love him- if she didn't she would never have asked him to be her boyfriend again- and so she didn't want him to be far away. It was understandable. She knew that he understood her reasons, but she also knew that he needed to go home. His family and most of his friends were there. At the very least he would have to go home to say goodbye to them and tell them that he was moving. It wouldn't be fair on him if she just expected him to drop his life for her, especially as she knew that he loved someone else just as much, if not more, than her.

"Do you promise me that you'll come back soon?" he truly didn't know what to answer. Would he come back? He supposed that he would. Sora loved Matt- and he had to accept that and try to move on. It wasn't as though he hadn't tried before, but he had to try again. The idea of moving to France, however, scared him. His family and his closest friends were in Japan and he didn't know if he could give them up to be with Catherine. Still, she had never asked him if he would come back to stay.

"I promise that I will come back here as soon as I can," she smiled, her blue eyes shining with hope. He only hoped that he didn't break her spirit if for some reason he couldn't keep his promise…

* * *

She had finally admitted it to herself. It had taken a long time- well, a couple of days- but now she, Sora Takenouchi, had admitted that she was jealous of Catherine. Before she had only told herself that she was jealous because she had to now 'share' Tai with another person. But now she knew differently. Sora still loved Matt- and she would continue to love him- but she was jealous because Catherine seemed so happy to be with Tai. It was as though Catherine could only be happy whilst she was in Tai's company. Sora knew that things were not like that between her and Matt. There were times when she wanted to hit her boyfriend because she was so frustrated with him and times when she had not spoken to him at all. It was true that Tai and Catherine hadn't been together for very long, and so they could be experiencing a "honey-moon-like" period, but she never remembered having that with Matt. There were times back when they had started dating when she had been so nervous that she had wanted to run far away from him every time they went on a date. It was only natural to be jealous of her, right? And Tai was a good guy. He could be lazy, he complained too much and he could be extremely dumb at times, but he was still a good guy. She shook her head and turned the television on. She had just finished calling Matt and now she was waiting for the couple to return from the pool. She could have gone down and got them, but she felt that they needed time alone together. They were leaving the next day after all.

"I cannot believe you Tai Kamiya!" Sora jumped as Catherine stormed into the apartment, a laughing Tai coming after her. Catherine was soaked, and she was slowly turning blue. Tai seemed to be mainly dry, and he had a look on his face that told Sora what had happened. He must have pushed her into the pool. That was mean. It was freezing outside, and although the pool would have been warm, walking back to the hotel room would have been pretty cold.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to push you in," Sora doubted that. She had learnt from a young age that it was never wise to bring Tai near water unless you actually wanted to swim, or if you were quick enough to be able to pull him into the water too. Catherine obviously hadn't known that.

"Would I be able to use the bathroom?" Catherine asked politely, shivering as she waited for an answer. Sora quickly nodded and ushered the slightly younger girl through the door leading to the bathroom. Tai chuckled under his breath and Sora thought she heard something about 'revenge for pushing me into the lake,' but she had no idea what that meant.

"That was very mean Tai," she told him as she flopped back down onto the couch, "She could get really sick after walking in the cold like that. Honestly, what were you thinking?" He shrugged and rummaged around in his suitcase for something.

"Did I ever tell you about the time when she pushed me into the lake at Odaiba Park? It was cold that day too. I ended up having the flu for a week. She'll be fine," he found whatever it was he was looking for and straightened, "Now excuse me for a second." He climbed into the closet and closed the door behind him. She turned to the news program that was on. She had managed to find a channel onto which she could put Japanese subtitles on. Although her French knowledge had increased- she could now greet people and ask how they were- she could not even grasp the general story if it was in French. With the subtitles however, she was able to watch and understand what was going on. She watched the show for around fifteen minutes, until both Tai and Catherine were ready.

"So, where are we going to spend our last night here?" she asked. Catherine only winked.

"It's a surprise. I have made plans for the three of us, so just follow me!" And with that they followed the young French girl out of the room and out into the city…

* * *

They were coming home. Tai and Sora were finally coming back home. Matt was excited. He couldn't wait to see them again. He had to admit that he was looking forward to seeing Sora more than Tai, but that was to be expected of course.

"Hmm… I wonder what is happening today to make Matt smile so much," T.K pretended to ponder on this fact, but the big smile on his face didn't help him. Normally this would have annoyed Matt, but Sora was coming home and so nothing could irritate him.

"Shut up T.K," he said good-naturedly, "You know what's happening. Next time Kari is over, probably tomorrow, I will idly comment on why you are so happy on that day. But are you ready? We have to leave in five minutes." Matt was once again playing chauffer to the airport, but this time he was taking T.K and Kari. He was picking Kari up at her apartment before driving to the airport. Joe, Mimi and Izzy were meeting them at the airport to welcome the best friends home. It seemed a small thing for everyone to gather together for, but the group hadn't met for a long time and they had decided that it was a good enough excuse for them to throw a little party.

"Yeah, I've been ready for ages," T.K grinned, "But you're not ready yet. Your phone is on the kitchen bench. It was beeping so I think that you have a message." Matt instinctively put his hand in his pocket, where his phone usually resided. It wasn't there. As T.K had noted, his phone was on the bench, and it was beeping. He dialed the number of his message bank and waited for the message whilst eyeing his watch impatiently. He was anxious to be going to the airport.

"You have one new message. Message received at 4:30 a.m.," he sighed in frustration. The machine was seriously too slow, "Matt… I just called to tell you that I love you. Our plane… our plane has been hijacked. At least, I think it has. I heard someone call out that someone has a gun or something. Please tell everyone that I love them, and that Tai does too. I don't even know where Tai is… he disappeared ten minutes ago and he hasn't come back." There was a bang in the background of the message, and Sora caught her breath, "That was just a gunshot. I should go. The plane is starting to go down. I love you." Matt frowned at the phone, before pressing the button to hear the message again.

"What's the time?" he finally asked his little brother when the message had finished. T.K looked puzzled. Matt had been staring at his watch, so why did he need to know the time?

"Uh… eight thirty a.m. You just checked your-

"Have you seen the news yet today? Is there a news program on now? Do you have a newspaper, anything?" now T.K was definitely scared. His brother seemed to be acting irrationally. Then again, T.K didn't know what was in the message.

"I don't know if the news is on," he answered. Matt didn't seem to hear him. Instead the older blond rushed across the living room and turned the television on quickly, murmuring to himself the entire time. T.K followed him, wondering if he had finally cracked.

"…This is a special bulletin. For those of you just joining us, the Japanese government has received word of a crash on a 747 flight from Paris to Japan. The plane was over the Pacific Ocean near the coast of China when it crashed into the ocean. It is uncertain as to what caused the crash, but it was in a difficult stretch of the ocean and rescue crews have so far found no survivors. People are urged to contact family or friends who may have been on the flight to confirm whether or not they caught the flight before calling the airline for confirmation. To repeat…" Matt turned the television off again and collapsed onto the couch. T.K couldn't move. How had Matt known about that? Had the message been from one of the others telling him to put the news on? He felt so guilty- he had no idea if Tai and Sora were alright, but here he was wondering about whether or not Matt had heard about this through a phone message.

"We need to call Tai or Sora to find out whether they were on the plane or not. They might have missed it you know," he tried to be hopeful. His crest was of Hope after all. But Matt's expression almost made him lose all hope. His brother lay on his back on the couch, his eyes closed and a both hands over his eyes.

"The message was from Sora. She-she explained the situation. There was a gunshot in the background… they're dead. They were both on the plane," T.K felt as though someone had thrown something very heavy into the bottom of his stomach. It had to be a nightmare. Something like this could not- should not! - have happened. He was dimly aware that he was now on his knees, but he didn't remember falling. He had always watched movies where things like this happened, but he had never believed that they were real. People didn't freeze up; they cried. And yet he couldn't find any tears.

"Does Kari know?" Matt lifted his hands off his eyes and swore softly.

"I almost forgot about Kari. She probably doesn't know. Sora didn't know where Tai was when she called. She said that he had disappeared ten minutes before the call. They wouldn't have even been together when they died. They would have died with strangers all around them, all alone," T.K took a deep breath and stood back up again. He grabbed the cordless phone and dialed Kari's number. Luckily she answered right away.

"Hi T.K," she had caller ID, and so she knew before hand who he was. That made it worse in a way. He didn't want to tell her. She sounded happy and it so he knew that she hadn't heard.

"Kari… have you watched the news this morning?" she must have picked something up in his voice.

"No, what's wrong? Why are you so upset?" he almost couldn't answer. He didn't really know what to say.

"There's been a plane crash. It was their plane. The rescue crews haven't picked up any survivors," he didn't have to classify which 'they' he meant. She knew. He heard her swallow and take a deep breath.

"What?" he didn't blame her for not believing. She had been looking forward to seeing her brother again. She had wanted to see if this trip had made her brother happy. She had hoped and hoped that he would have changed for the better over the week he had spent there. And now she would never know.

"Sora left a message on Matt's phone. She was on the plane at the time I think, and Tai was too. The plane crashed in the ocean near China and there have been no survivors. It's all over the news," he could dimly hear the television being turned on at the other end of the phone line. He heard a thud which he interpreted as Kari falling down.

"So Tai's not coming back? He won't be home tomorrow?" he had thought that it was hard losing two of his best friends. Now he realized just how much harder it was for Kari. She depended on her brother a lot- he helped to balance her family- and without him she would have to do many things on her own now that he was gone. Whilst he had just lost Tai as a close friend, she had lost him as a best friend and a brother. He knew that it was selfish of him, but he was secretly thanking the Lord for making Matt stay in Japan. He felt guilty about it, but it didn't stop it from being true that he was thankful his brother was still alive.

"No Kari, he won't be coming home," he was crying, he realized. Although he hadn't been able to cry before, the tears were rolling down his face now. Kari was crying too. He turned back to look at his brother. Matt wasn't crying. It disturbed T.K to see his brother like that. But there was nothing he could do. His two friends had been killed and he could do nothing to bring them back…

To be continued…

Litanya: I'm sorry that this chapter is short, but I want to break it off here. But don't worry; this fic isn't finished yet. I estimate about… two, three or maybe even four or five chapters. I actually know where this fic is going now… I am up to the part that I have sort of planned. Anyway, please review and I'll hopefully see you next chapter!


	8. Isolated

Litanya: Hi again everyone, I hope you had a good Easter (if you celebrate it and if you don't I hope you had a good weekend). Just one thing: this fic isn't called "The Island Holiday" for nothing. You will soon find out why. Anyway, I don't own Digimon!

_**The Island Holiday**_

_**Chapter 7: Isolated**_

He almost winced in pain as he moved. Why had he fallen asleep in such an uncomfortable position? In fact, why had he fallen asleep at all? He wasn't even supposed to be lying down- the last he remembered he had been walking back to- his eyes snapped open. He was staring at sand. He closed his eyes, counted to ten and then opened them again. The coarse sand of a beach was all that stared back at him. He sat up slowly, aware of a sharp pain in his left shoulder and his leg. A short distance from where he lay, a small wave broke onto the sand. The water was grey, not sparkling blue, and the sky above him was overcast. The picture seemed to sway for a second before it righted itself. What had happened? He couldn't remember much. He had been going back to his seat on the plane when… his vision spun again. He forgot about finding out what had happened and tried to gingerly move his left arm to see what was wrong. He hissed in pain. There was a small wound near his shoulder joint, as if something had pierced right through his arm and gone out the other side. He grimaced as he saw that. He then looked at his leg. There was no blood that he could see; in fact his leg looked fine. He dismissed the pain he felt as a bad twist of a muscle or something. He ran his right hand through his hair and stopped when he felt a sticky substance there. He brought his hand back so that he could see it. The substance was blood. He must have hit his head somehow. That would probably explain why his vision had spun before. Something in the water caught his eye and pulled his attention away from his injuries. There was something floating in the water. When he realized what it was he almost vomited. The plane had crashed. He remembered now. He looked down and saw that he was wearing a life vest. How had he gotten that? He looked around the beach, trying vainly to find any trace of another survivor.

'_If I survived then someone else must have too. Sora. Where is she? I know that I wasn't with her when the plane crashed but… she has to be alive. She has to be. I know that she is alive. She wouldn't abandon me,'_ he made sure that his eyes stayed away from the water. He didn't want to see anymore bodies. He just wanted to find Sora. Or any other survivors for that matter. He just didn't want to be alone.

* * *

She had been staring at the water for a while now. If she looked closely, she could just see the wing of the plane standing up straight in the water. For all she knew, Tai's body could be around there. She shook her head angrily. He wasn't dead. She knew that he wouldn't die without knowing whether she was okay or not. Tai was the leader of the digidestined- indestructible. He had faced Piedmon, Etemon and many other Digimon and he had survived. A plane crash was nothing compared to that. But still, it would be easier to believe if she could see him. She could _sense_ that he was still alive- in a way- but she needed him to be there for her. She usually counted on him to come to her, but now she had to look for him.

'_Come on Sora, pull yourself together. You won't accomplish anything just sitting here staring at a wing. You need to search for help,'_ she pulled her eyes away from the sinking plane, amazed at how much of her strength it took to do so. She had already checked herself for injuries- apart from a gash across her face and a sprained wrist she appeared to be fine. She set off down the beach, alternating between scanning the water and scanning the beach for survivors. After a few minutes however, she decided to just look on the beach. The water was full of floating bodies and wreckage from the plane. She couldn't stand looking at that. The beach was empty as far as she could see. She had no idea where she was. She remembered that the plane had been turning around a lot during the flight and so she didn't think that they had gotten as far as they were supposed to when the plane had crashed. In fact, she didn't think that they had even flown near China with the path that they had been flying. But then again, she didn't know anything about the flight path between Paris and Japan. She thought that she had experienced a lot in her life- she had seen her parents divorce, she had traveled to an entirely different world, she had faced the risk of losing her friends and family to various Digimon attacks and she had traveled around the world to stop a Digimon from destroying it. But throughout all of that she had never felt as helpless as she felt now. The plane had held hundreds of passengers. It was a big plane. And yet she couldn't see any survivors, only the dead, and she could do nothing to help anyone. At least before she had had her friends to help her. Now she was alone.

"When I get my hands on Matt…" she froze. The male voice continued to mutter on, but she couldn't hear what he was saying. She couldn't see him, but she could hear him. Her eyes desperately scanned the sand in front of her. Finally she spotted him. He had his back to the ocean and he seemed to be cradling his left arm. She sighed with relief. He really was alive. She made her way over to him, and his muttering seemed to grow louder, "… I never really wanted to come in the first place. But no… Matt had to persuade me and remind me that I was his best friend and so of course I had to do this favour for him. First Catherine and now this plane crash… Matt really does owe me one. He is so going to get it when we get back home…" She giggled. He was being so immature about the whole situation. It wasn't Matt's fault that the plane had crashed. Matt… it was funny. She hadn't thought about him ever since she had called him to let him know about the plane. Tai's head whipped around and he grinned weakly when he saw that she was really there.

"Oh my gosh… what happened to your arm?" all thoughts of Matt and her other friends at home disappeared when she looked at his wound. There seemed to be a lot of blood, but she didn't think that the wound was all that bad.

"I don't really know… I remember I was on my way back to my seat and then everything gets a little blurry, literally. All I really remember is that I couldn't get back to my seat for some reason; it was as if something was blocking my way. But I must have been conscious when we hit the water because I ended up on the beach and I have this life-vest thingy. What happened to your face?" she didn't answer right away. She ripped the sleeve of her jumper off and wrapped it around Tai's shoulder. He was lucky that whatever had pierced his arm had missed his bone; otherwise he would have been in a lot more pain than he seemed to be in.

"Oh… I dimly remember some shrapnel hitting me when I was in the water. Too many people inflated their life vests whilst they were waiting to hit the water. Some people near me… whilst I managed to swim away they were being pulled to the top of the water by their life vests and they were trapped by the roof of the plane. But I somehow managed to swim away from the wreckage, getting only a few cuts along the way," now that she thought about it, it wasn't very fair. She had just been lucky- her seat had been near the emergency door and the crew of the ship had just managed to open it before the crash. And from what she had heard from Tai, he was extremely lucky too- he didn't even know how he had escaped from the plane at all. Or so he said anyway. The point was that neither of them should have escaped if no one else had. What were the odds that the two digidestined on the plane, who had been sitting in completely different seats, survived whilst everyone else didn't?

"We were lucky. But we also have gotten used to thinking under stressful conditions. In the Digital World we faced death many times- more than we probably should have, but it's not my fault that I was too headstrong back then- and so we instinctively acted in a way which would save us. I remember Izzy telling me once that we had developed something like a sixth sense about danger, and that this sense could possibly save us in a life or death situation. He showed me some equations that supposedly proved it, but I never really believed him until today. That reminds me… why is it so light?" she frowned. Their flight had left in the evening from Paris. When it had crashed, the sky had been dark. She remembered coming to shore, and she knew that she had fallen unconscious for a while, but it could not have taken this long. The answer was flashing at her, but she couldn't form it into words.

"We're not on our flight path. We must be further East than we're supposed to be, somehow," she finally managed to say, "I thought the sky was dark when we crashed but… it was just clouds. We're to the East of Japan and not to the West like we're supposed to be." He just stared at her, looking very confused. "Paris is to the West of Japan, right? Well, we technically _should _have flown over China to get back to Japan, meaning that we would come from the West. But now, for some reason I don't understand, we are further east. As you know, the Sun rises in the East and therefore the countries which are further to the east are ahead in time. As it is probably around noon here now, I'm guessing that we are a considerable distance further east than we are supposed to be." Now Tai understood.

"But if we're not on our flight path, how are they going to find us?" she had no idea. She continued to wrap his wound in silence, praying for a miracle.

* * *

Everyone had now heard the news and they had gathered at Matt's apartment to watch the news for any more developments.

"…and now for the latest update into the 747 plane crash. It has been found that the plane did not indeed crash on the coast of China. It has been released by the airline that they lost the position of the plane shortly after it took-off from Paris airport. They were still in touch with the pilots of the plane, and so the airline thought that the plane was still on its original flight path. However, there seems to be no trace of the missing plane. The airline admits that they made a huge mistake by allowing the plane to bypass one of the beacons on the flight path, but other than that they have no comments…" Mimi reached over and turned the television off. She couldn't handle watching it anymore, and from what she could see, no one else could handle it either.

"I can't believe this. It was only supposed to be a week's holiday in Paris and now it has turned into a huge mess. This is all my fault… I should have cancelled my band meeting or tried harder to reschedule it or something," Matt had been blaming himself for what had happened too much and Mimi was sick of it. It was ten o'clock in the morning, one and a half hours after Matt had found out about the crash, and every chance he had gotten to blame himself, he had taken.

"Matt if you blame yourself one more time I will throw something at you! You could _not_ do anything about this. Trust me- if this had been your fault I would have told you by now. But it isn't. Believe it or not, these things do happen. All you did was try to give your two best friends a fun week in Paris. If you want to blame anyone for this, then blame those stupid highjackers for bringing a gun onto the plane," her outburst didn't seem to have any effect on her friend. He just bowed his head and looked even guiltier, if that was possible. T.K was watching his brother worriedly. Kari was next to T.K, staring at the ground. She was extremely pale at the moment, and that made her puffy red eyes obvious. Mimi shook her head, angry at herself for thinking of appearances at a time like this.

"It's not your fault Matt. I _knew_ that something bad was going to happen on this holiday when you first mentioned it to Tai. And Tai knew too… remember? He came home from soccer early that day with a bad feeling. We just assumed that it was because of the Digital World but… we couldn't have known at the time that this would happen," Mimi hated seeing Kari so depressed. The little girl- although she was not all that little anymore- was supposed to be happy and filled with light all of the time. With depression came darkness and it just did not suit the girl at all.

"Hey they could still be alive you know. If the airline doesn't know where the plane crashed, then they are looking for survivors in the wrong place. Tai and Sora might still be alive!" naturally it was T.K who brought this point up. But none of the others really thought it was possible. The plane had crashed _hours_ ago. The likelihood of the two of them surviving in the water for that long was very slim. Both Tai and Sora were very athletic, but the water would have been freezing. It was winter in the northern hemisphere after all, and that meant cold weather and cold water. Izzy didn't have the heart to tell that to T.K though.

"If they don't know where the plane is though, then they don't know where it crashed and so therefore they won't know where to search for survivors," he felt that that was a nicer way to say it. At least then he wasn't completely crushing T.K's hope.

"Oh… I guess you're right. But I still won't give up on them completely," he desperately needed to hold onto his hope. It was a part of who he was. He held the crest of Hope- he was supposed to be hopeful whilst everyone else despaired. He felt that it was his duty. It also helped that there was a voice in the back of his head that told him that everything was going to be alright someday. It was the 'someday' part that worried him.

"Okay, so the plane was high jacked at about 4:30 this morning, right? And there was a gunshot. But if the high jackers had only just revealed themselves, then why did the plane crash at the moment it did?" Ken didn't want to think too deeply about the deaths of his friends, so he decided to focus on details instead. Details were cold, hard facts- there was no time to be emotional when dealing with details. Joe and Yolie seemed to be trying the same tactic.

"Maybe the pilots heard the shot and thought that it would be better to crash into the ocean than into a building or something like that?" Joe suggested, but the in-training doctor didn't really sound convinced about that. In truth, he was struggling to even think. Images of his two friends kept on popping into his head. He deeply regretted not being there when they left now. He should have gotten the day off work. His boss had told him that he worked too much, and had even offered him a day off, but he hadn't taken it because he had thought that he needed the money. He should have taken the day off.

"Why didn't Tai want to go Kari?" Matt asked suddenly, looking up for the first time in a while, "He had always wanted to go to Paris and yet it took a lot of persuasion to get him to go. I know that you know the reason why." Kari didn't know what to say. She wasn't eager to betray her brother's trust, even though she knew that he was probably dead. She thought back to the morning he had left.

"He told me the morning that they left… He told me to tell you not to feel guilty," Matt looked surprised.

"He said that?" he whispered. Kari nodded.

"He thought that it was just his imagination. But he said that if anything went wrong on the trip, you weren't allowed to feel guilty. I don't think that this was quite what my brother was thinking of, but it fits one of his reasons I guess. He had many reasons for not wanting to go, but he wanted to go anyway, if you know what I mean. And he was having a great time the last time I spoke to him. I'm sorry… maybe I'll be able to answer your question properly when I have gotten used to it," there was no need to ask what she meant. She needed to get used to the fact that her brother was probably dead before she could betray him. Matt understood. He felt a lot better. Tai at least, didn't blame him for what had happened. It was such a relief. But at the same time, he realized that Tai would never be around to forgive him ever again, or to pull a trick on him, or do anything. It was so frustrating. He just wanted them back…

* * *

"What do we do?" his quiet question surprised her. She was so used to him taking control that questions like that almost seemed impossible, "We have to set up some kind of a camp, but how do we go about it? We need wood for a fire, some sort of food and fresh water and possibly something that we can make into a shelter." She was relieved when she figured out that he was talking to himself. She guessed that it was because he always organized things like this. She herself didn't really know where to start.

"What do you need me to do? I mean… with your shoulder injury you can't carry anything around. Do you want me to search for firewood?" he glanced down at his injured shoulder and scowled at it.

"Yes, you'll probably need to get the firewood until my shoulder is fixed. But once it's fixed I can do that. Our main problem is food. This island only seems to have grass and strange plants," she almost laughed. Almost. As her mother ran a flower shop, Sora had studied various flowers over her lifetime. Her mother had recently found an interest in plants which could also double as food. And Sora had recognized some of the plants on the island to be sources of food.

"I think that I can get us some food, but these 'strange plants' will be the source of it. Besides, we know how to fish, right? We are next to the ocean, so we can catch fish for food as well."

"Well, what about water then? We don't have any fresh water," he looked determined to prove that he was right. This time she did laugh. He could be so cute when he was stubbornly trying to prove a point. He was confused by her laughter.

"Why don't you go looking for a spring further inland whilst I gather some firewood and some food? We've been lucky this far- I think it's time to see how far our luck holds. I bet that you find some water," he didn't say anything- he just stood and limped away into the bush. She frowned. He hadn't told her that he had a leg injury as well. She just sighed however and stood herself. She had to concentrate to get the right mix of plants otherwise they would starve on this little island before they could be rescued…

To be continued…

Litanya: I hope you enjoyed the chapter… sorry if it a little confusing. I kind of dug myself into a hole in the previous chapter as I forgot that the distance between China and Japan is relatively small. And as for how the plane got to the East of Japan… well… go figure. The plane took a straighter path than it was supposed to because it missed the position beacon. Therefore it flew straight over Japan without realizing it and ended up to the east. And please don't tell me that that isn't possible- I watch a show that investigates plane crashes and this kind of thing happened in 1994 or 1995. Anyway, please review!


	9. Far Away

Litanya: Hey again. This chapter is dedicated to everyone who has read this fic. Thank you for the support! I don't own Digimon.

_**The Island Holiday**_

_**Chapter 8: Far Away**_

Sora had been right; Tai found a small spring only a few meters inland away from the beach. There was a problem with it however. They had nothing that could act as a bucket to keep the water in. He frowned at the spring. Why did things like this always have to happen to him? He supposed that he could go back to the beach and ask Sora what to do, but he was determined to do it himself. He had already been wrong once, and he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of Sora by asking for her help. He had been the leader in the Digital World; he should know what to do here. After all, they had managed to survive there on a meager supply of food and water. They hadn't had a bucket then either. He looked around at the surrounding area. He could see trees and a few rocks, but nothing that he could really- his eyes stopped on a large rock a few meters away. It wasn't the size of the rock that drew his eye- it was about the same size as an ice-cream tub- but its queer shape. The bottom was rounded, and rain had eroded the top so that it had turned almost into a container. If he was careful, he would be able to carry water with it. It really was his lucky day. In some ways he felt that it was too lucky. There had to be a catch somewhere, he knew it. He walked over to the rock and tried to pick it up. His shoulder screamed at him and he was forced drop the rock before he screamed out loud. He felt useless. He was going to have to ask Sora to come and help him with it. Sighing to himself he marked the position of the spring in his mind. He then turned to go back to the beach where he had left Sora, but he ran into a problem. He didn't know the direction from which he had come.

"Why is this happening to me? Is God really this cruel?" he grumbled as he desperately searched for a familiar landmark. Not that he had really seen any landmarks on the way there. His mind had been on other things, such as his shoulder injury and proving Sora wrong. He knew that he hadn't gone very far away from the beach, so he decided to pick the direction in which the sound of waves was the loudest and walk towards that. He was rather proud of himself for thinking about the waves. If he had been the same as when he was younger, he would have just picked a random direction and walked that way. At least now he was able to make educated guesses.

"Hey, did you find one?" Sora asked him when he finally made it back to the beach. (He had somehow managed to turn a complete circle and he had found himself back at the spring a couple of times before he realized what had gone wrong.) A small pile of wood sat beside her on the beach, and she was examining what looked to be several leaves. How she had managed to collect all of that whilst he had been lost was a mystery.

"I found it, yes, but I wasn't able to bring any water back. There is a rock that would make a good sort of bucket, but…" he gestured to his arm, which was hanging limply at his side, "I tried to pick it up to fill it with water, but my injury wouldn't let me. I know where the spring is; at least I think I do. It isn't very far from here, so if we need it quickly we'll be able to get it. I don't suggest going to get it at night however- I got lost on the way back even though it isn't far away. What are you doing?" His curiosity had finally gotten the best of him. She patted the sand next to him and he obediently sat down next to her, grimacing as his leg protested against the movement.

"I'm trying to sort out what plants we can eat and which ones we can't. These leaves here have a slight red tinge to them at the stem of the leaf. That means that it is diseased and it would be safer to leave it alone. This one, however, is really green and this white flower growing off of it tells me that it is edible. I can't remember the name of it, but I read about it in one of my mother's books," she explained everything calmly, carefully studying the leaves and pointing things out to him as she spoke.

"So we're eating leaves?" the idea didn't really appeal to him. He heard Sora sigh.

"Yes, we're eating leaves for now, until we can devise a way to fish. We can't do much else. We will starve if we don't eat. The leaves can't taste _that_ bad… after all, most vegetables are nice, and they came from plants," the look on her face however, told him that she wasn't as sure of that as she tried to sound. He had to laugh at her expression, "Do you find something funny?" She demanded to know, taking her eyes off the leaves for a few seconds. For some odd reason, that only made him laugh even more. "What is so funny Tai? Tell me!" He wished he could tell her what it was, but he didn't know. He just had an urge to laugh that he couldn't refuse. She frowned as he continued to laugh. She placed her hand on his forehead, before putting placing it back onto her own.

"What's wrong Sora?" he managed to ask when he finally stopped laughing. She began looking through the leaves a little faster.

"You have a slight temperature. The wound in your arm is probably becoming infected," he shrugged, or tried to, and looked down at his wound. It seemed to be alright from what he could see, but he knew better than to question Sora when she was in this mood.

"I'll be fine. I've survived being sick before, and I will now. Can I help you? It's not fair for you to do everything," he hated sitting around doing nothing. He was right-handed, and so it shouldn't have mattered that his left hand was basically unusable for the moment. He felt bad for not even being able to get water for her. Sora hesitated before she replied.

"Well… you know in movies, how people get stranded on desert islands and they… they search the beach for things that could have washed up on the shore? Would you be able to do that?" she kept her eyes directed at the sand. He understood. She felt bad for asking him to do the gruesome task, but at the same time she knew that she couldn't do it.

"I can do that. Then, when I get back, I'll take you to the water so we can have a drink, okay?" he didn't really wait for a reply. He was glad that he had something to do, but he felt awful about what he might have to do. At first he kept his eyes on the sand in front of him, but then he realized that he might miss something if he concentrated only on a small area. He slowly lifted his gaze until he could see into the ocean. He continued along the beach, stopping to look at random objects that had gotten stuck in the current close to shore. Most of the objects were useless- what need did they have for a small doll? But there were also some useful objects, like blankets. When he found a blanket he unfolded it further up the beach and placed rocks on the corners so that it would dry. Other objects caused tears to gather in his eyes. These objects were usually family photos, or other objects that obviously had held meaning for the passenger who had held it. He found a silver pocket watch which looked as though its owner had polished it every day. Inside the cover was an engraving:

_Dear Isabella, may this watch guide you and remind you that time is precious. But no time is more precious than the time I spend with you. Love Graham._

He assembled all sorts of useful objects, but most of them wouldn't ensure their survival. The most useful thing he had found, he thought, was a large bucket, which had been used by the airhostesses to hold flowers. He could still smell the scent of roses. He wondered briefly why they had had roses on board the plane when they could carry diseases, but he didn't dwell on it for too long. Finally, after a couple of hours of searching, he stumbled upon something that he couldn't ignore, something that seemed to horrific that he couldn't move another step. A child lay on the beach, unmoving, and silent. He thought that he had accepted that he had been involved in a crash, he thought that he had accepted the fact that hundreds of people had died whilst he had lived. But he hadn't. He sank down to his knees and did something he hadn't done in years. He cried.

* * *

She knew that she was being mean by sending Tai to sort through the wreckage that had made it to shore, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it by herself. She looked up at the position of the Sun in the sky, wishing that she could read the time from that alone. But whatever the time was, it seemed to be late afternoon. The Sun was already halfway down to the horizon, and it was beginning to get cold. She couldn't see Tai anymore- the beach curved around from where she was and he had disappeared around that curve- and she had to admit that that worried her. Not only was she afraid of being alone on this island- she was sure that it was an island, although she wasn't 100 sure- but Tai already had a slight temperature, and he was injured. She shouldn't have made him go looking. It must have been about an hour after she had sent him off, and he hadn't come back. She tried not to worry too much, but she couldn't help it. Her conscience was telling her that it was her fault if something had happened to him.

'_Tai can look after himself for the moment. I should go and get some of the water that Tai found. He came from my left and he said it wasn't far, so I should be able to find it,'_ she gathered the edible leaves together and tucked them safely behind a rock. The inedible leaves she took to the water and threw them out into the ocean, saying a quick prayer as she did so. She only wished that she had some real flowers to throw to honour the souls of the dead. She turned away from the ocean quickly to stop all thoughts about death and set off in the direction of the spring. It took her quite a while to find it, but she found both the spring and the rock which Tai had told her about. She filled the rock up carefully and managed to make her way back to the beach quickly. It must have taken her at least an hour to do that, and yet Tai was still not back from his task. She was really worried now. She placed the water-filled rock next to where she had stored the leaves and began walking in the direction she had last seen Tai walk in. She followed the trail quite easily. Although it was getting dark, objects that Tai seemed to have found lay in a straight line along the dry sand of the beach, with rocks holding them down. Bits of paper drifted around in the light breeze. She made sure to keep her eyes averted from what the papers contained- some of them seemed to be photographs- and hurried along the trail. When she finally caught up to Tai, she stopped a few meters behind him. He seemed to be digging a hole, and it sounded as though he was crying.

"Are you alright Tai?" she asked after a few moments. He jumped and turned to see her and in that movement she saw that he wasn't digging a hole, but filling one in. He was almost finished as well.

"I'm fine, I just… I just found something that I never really wanted to even hear about. It's okay," his tears were stopping, but his voice sounded strained. He had been there for a while. She watched as he finished filling the hole in. She decided that she wouldn't ask him about it. She had a feeling that she didn't want to know and that he didn't want to tell her.

"Come on, we'd better gather everything up and head back to our 'camp'. It's starting to get too dark," Tai held something up at her.

"I found these near- near here," it was a flashlight and a packet of some sort of pain-killing medication, "I've tried turning the flashlight on, and it works. I think that it was one of the ones the airhostesses had. I heard somewhere that their lights can work in water. Along with the lights on our life-jackets, it could be useful. And the tablets will be helpful if ever you get sick." She just nodded. She had heard the emphasis on the word 'you.' In other words, it was another one of the medications that he was allergic to. She had known him for so long that she knew what happened when he took medication he was allergic to, even though the only time that had happened had been when he had been five. She felt bad that the only medication they could find could only be used for her.

"Is your arm okay?" she asked as they began to walk back.

"Yeah, it's fine. I can't feel any pain anymore… I think that's a good thing. I found a sewing kit if you want to try sewing it up," she shivered at the thought of doing it, but she knew that she would have to. She just hoped that it wouldn't hurt him too much.

"Alright, let's get moving. I've got some water back at our camp, so lets gather everything up so we can go eat and drink, then I'll deal with your arm, okay?" he only nodded. He looked as exhausted as she felt. It had been less than a day since the plane had crashed and yet she felt as though they had been on the island for days. She picked up a blanket and prayed that help would come soon. She wasn't sure how long they could survive on the island alone.

* * *

The memorial service had been the hardest thing to get through. As the airline still had no idea where the plane had crashed, no bodies had been recovered. There could be no proper funerals that way. To 'help' the families and friends of those killed, the airline had built a small monument dedicated to the passengers of the flight. The monument had all of the names of the passengers carved onto it, and a huge service had been held. Hundreds of people had turned up, which only signified the huge number killed in the accident. The airline still had no idea what had happened and that made Matt very angry. In his view, the airline needed to know what had happened.

"This is so stupid," Kari muttered from beside him, "I mean they are just doing this to try and make us less angry with them. If they would tell us what had happened, then maybe we could try to forgive them. If the hijackers had control of the plane or something, if they'd just tell us _anything_, then maybe they would be held less responsible. But they lost a _plane_, hundreds were killed and they expect a ceremony to absolve them of all guilt." Although Matt felt the same way as Kari, he didn't put it quite so harshly. Then again, the Kari he knew should have been one of the first people to forgive the airline.

"It's not completely their fault Kari. Remember what Sora said on the phone. And once the plane is in the air, the controllers cannot necessarily control the plane, now can they? I'm not saying that it isn't their fault, because the controllers have to be blamed for losing the plane, but there always has to be more than one problem in a crash like this," he didn't know why he was defending them. It was probably because he still felt guilty, and so he knew what it was like to have blame shoved onto his shoulders.

"But I can blame them, can't I?" it sounded as though she was questioning herself rather than asking him. She seemed to have been doing that a lot since the accident. It was almost as though when she had lost her brother, she had also lost a part of herself. It scared him, and he knew that it scared T.K. His younger brother now spent practically every waking moment at the Kamiya apartment with Kari, making sure that she didn't go crazy. Matt wished that he had someone to be there for him like that, but he knew that he could handle it by himself. Everyone was going through the same sort of emotional torment as he, and so he knew that they all had to be there for each other.

"I just wish that there was something that I could do to make this more personal…" Matt whispered to himself. Tai and Sora deserved more than just having their name read out to a crowd of people which mostly didn't know them. Everyone who had been on the plane deserved more than that.

"Would anyone like to say a few words?" no one moved. He knew that everyone wanted to say something, but the fact that there were hundreds of others there stopped them. He wasn't going to let that bother him. His band was all there. They had all known Sora quite well, as she had attended most of their rehearsals. They had also known Tai, as he had attended only a few less rehearsals than Sora. They had had something planned for if anyone was asked to speak. Matt politely moved to the front. The speaker appeared to be relieved that someone was taking her up on her offer.

"If any of you are like me, then you think that this 'ceremony' thing is too impersonal to honour the lives lost in this tragedy. My best friend and my girlfriend were killed in the accident and I think that this 'memorial' just doesn't do them any justice unless there is something that makes us feel anything but angry at the airline. This is a song that Tai and Sora always told me was their favourite. I hope that this helps to make this thing more personal somehow," he took a CD out of his pocket- the song was by his band, but they didn't need to know that- and placed it in the stereo one of his band members had brought. The song was about how different the world seemed when someone important had gone. The song had been written by the drummer after his girlfriend had broken up with him, but the words seemed to fit for this situation too. The song expressed the futility of wishing and dreaming that someone was going to come back, but at the same time it expressed the sadness and utter emptiness that the person left behind felt. Matt had loved the song from the start- Tai and Sora had listened to the song almost every day. By playing this song he felt that they were being recognized. The world had recognized that they were gone, and it was mourning. When the song ended, the crowd was in tears. The song had helped them to release their pent-up emotions. The ceremony was over, and although they were still grieving, they now knew that their loved ones had been acknowledged. That was how Matt chose to read the situation anyway. They would never be fully healed- they could never forget the ones they had lost- but the people at the ceremony were beginning to get on with their lives. It was time that he got back on track too…

To be continued…

Litanya: Thank you for reading this chapter. I'm sorry if the end part was a little rushed- I want to skip ahead in time a little next chapter. For anyone who is interested, this fic was inspired by the song 'Perfect World' by Simple Plan. It's a fantastic song, and that is the one that I was thinking of for the ceremony. Anyway, please review and hopefully I will update in about two weeks. (I have assignments due in so I can't write it sooner.)


	10. One Year Ago

Litanya: Hi again. I'm sorry that this chapter has taken so long, but my Chem eng assignment was a pain, as was my Maths assignment. Anyway, without further ado, here is the next chapter!

_**The Island Holiday**_

_**Chapter 9: One Year Ago**_

A year had passed since the plane had crashed. Matt walked to the Kamiya apartment to pick up Kari and T.K to take them to the memorial. In the year that had passed, nothing much had changed. T.K still spent practically every waking hour at the Kamiya apartment, Kari still seemed unsure who she actually was, and Matt was still blaming himself. Life was going on as usual, but although Matt had promised to get on with his life, he couldn't seem to do so properly. He continued to write and play with his band- they were making a lot of money- but other than that, his life wasn't moving at all. The people from the ceremony had found out that it had been his band that had sung the song he had played there, and he had donated all of the money earned from the sale of that song to charity. He felt as though he was almost taking advantage of Tai and Sora's deaths now. At the time it had seemed a good idea to play the song- music could tell emotions that words could not speak- but now he regretted it because he felt as though his band's fame had come from that ceremony. Of course his band had been popular before the ceremony but… anyway; he still owed it to Tai at least to continue with the band. After all, Tai had only gone because Matt had had a meeting with the record company.

He sighed as he arrived at the Kamiya apartment. Once again he stared at the door, unable to bring himself to knock. This time his friend wouldn't come and let him in- he had to knock. Kari opened the door, her eyes already red, and ushered him inside. T.K sat at the kitchen table, talking to a young blonde who Matt didn't recognize at first.

"Catherine is here to come to the memorial with us, if that's okay," Kari told him as T.K and the girl stood. Matt frowned slightly. The Catherine he had known had always seemed full of energy, and almost always up to some sort of mischief somehow. The girl standing with T.K- he supposed that she was too old to call 'girl' but he couldn't think of anything else- looked… drained. Her pale blue eyes were tinged with red- she had been crying- but that wasn't the problem. It was almost as if she had lost herself somewhere. That was all that he could think of. He knew that she was usually pale, but her skin seemed to be paler than usual, almost a shade of grey. Huge bags were under her eyes and… she just looked awful.

"Bonjour Matt, it is good to see you again," she was being very polite. He had thought that she didn't like him- back when she had been a student at their school she had kept away from him- but it seemed that now he was wrong or she just didn't care about that anymore. In truth, he didn't know what to think.

"Bonjour Catherine welcome back to Japan," he could be polite too, "We should be leaving here if we want to get there at the start." The memorial was held at a park near the airport, and so Matt had to drive them there. T.K and Kari piled into the back seat, leaving Catherine to the front passenger seat. T.K and Kari started a quiet discussion in the backseat between the two of them. Catherine stared ahead at the road in front of them, not saying anything. It made Matt uncomfortable, "Are you okay?" He asked the question in French without thinking. His French had always been good- he often kept in contact with his grandparents- but he had no idea why he had spoken to her in the language. Maybe it was just so that he didn't want T.K and Kari to hear the answer.

"It's my fault," she replied quietly, "You shouldn't want to talk to me, or take me here. You deserve to know that it was my fault. I told Tai that I never wanted to see or hear him again, and now I won't." He was so surprised that he almost turned to stare at her. Instead he just kept his eyes on the road and searched his mind for the French words he wanted to say.

"Don't be silly. It's not your fault at all. If it is anyone's fault, it is mine. I sent them on the holiday in the first place. If I had just cancelled the holiday, then everything would have been fine and they wouldn't have died," she shook her head, and even though he couldn't see her, he could feel her blue eyes piercing his skin. She had no right to glare at him like that… no wait, she did. It was his fault that her boyfriend was dead. She had every right to glare.

"It was not your fault! You just wanted to give them a good holiday away, and they had fun, most of the time. I told Tai that I didn't want to see him or Sora again. Both of them! And then the next day… I heard about the plane and I knew; I knew that it was my fault," he had had enough of her feeling guilty. She wasn't supposed to be like this. She was supposed to be filled with positive energy, and even though he didn't know her, it hurt to know that she was like this. It was almost as sad as seeing a five year old crying because they had been left alone in the world. No, he couldn't let her blame herself.

"You weren't on the plane, you didn't crash it. Therefore it is not your fault. So you told someone that you didn't want to see them again. Everyone has done that before- you couldn't have known what was going to happen," he paused, the reality of what she had said dawning on him, "Why were you yelling at Tai anyway? I thought that the two of you were dating?" So maybe that was the wrong question to ask. How was he supposed to know? Tears began to fall down her face, and the conversation between T.K and Kari stopped.

"Matt, what did you say to her?" T.K muttered quietly to him as Kari leant forward to comfort Catherine. Matt couldn't turn around, but he gave his brother a helpless look via the mirror.

"I just said that it wasn't her fault, that's all. But she won't believe me. Look, I wouldn't say anything on purpose to upset her. I just asked if she was okay, then she said that it was her fault, and then I tried to tell her it wasn't her fault," he sighed to himself as T.K began to help Kari calm Catherine. This was going to be a long trip.

* * *

He still didn't understand how they had survived that first night. Then again, he didn't understand how they were still alive. It was just over a year after the crash and he and Sora were still on their island. They had developed a routine now. Every morning they woke up early. Tai would go straight to the water to try and spear some fish (he was very good at this now) whilst Sora went off to pick some of the edible leaves. (Tai had picked the leaves only once, but that had ended up in near disaster and so now Sora had forbidden him from picking them.) Once they had gathered enough food for the day, they lit a fire and had a breakfast of fish and leaves. They spent the rest of the morning doing maintenance- fixing clothes, gathering firewood etc- until the Sun was beginning to climb back down the sky or until they had finished. They then ate a quick lunch of, yep; you guessed it, fish and leaves, before spending the afternoon doing 'academic' activities. 'Academic' activities included Tai teaching Sora French, and the two of them making up their own language. (Sora had complained that she had no languages to teach Tai, so they decided to make one up. After all, their island had to have a native tongue, so it worked out well.) After this they prepared for the night, ate more fish and leaves, before staring up at the sky and sleeping. It wasn't much of a routine, but it was the best that they could come up with.

"J'aime la glass, j'aime la glass, vanielle, chocolat! J'aime la glass, j'aime la glass, fraise aussi!" Sora sang quietly to herself as she rinsed the water bucket out, "Hey Tai, what do you think the others are doing now?" it was technically the time of day in which Tai taught her French, but today they had just decided to have a 'conversation class'- in other words they just wanted to talk. They mingled languages; French turned to Japanese turned to Sortish (their own language) but they understood each other, and that was all that mattered.

"I would say that T.K and Kari would be at school because it is a Friday, and Matt would be at a band rehearsal because his band would have to practice every day to keep up with their popularity. Joe will be studying still- maybe in a uni lecture. Mimi would be at the mall, and Izzy will be playing a game of chess over the internet whilst doing something to do with physics," he hoped that he was at least almost right. He didn't want to think of any of them being depressed or sad or anything because of them being gone. He knew that they could all still be doing those things and be sad, but he hoped not. He hoped that everyone was happy and that they were dealing with everything well. It had been a year after all. He was worried about Kari, but he knew that she had T.K to look after her. He was also extremely worried about Matt. He knew that the blond musician was probably blaming himself and knowing him, he would keep it to himself. That was the worrying thing- if Matt told the others about it then they would get that nonsense out of his system, but Matt was always one to keep his feelings a secret and therefore the others might not notice his guilt. It was a big problem, but Tai had no idea what was happening. It annoyed him to no end.

"At this moment I wish that I could be at a lecture. They are going to find us, aren't they?" this question got asked every day, but it wasn't always Sora asking it. When they had first found themselves on the island, they had thought that rescue would only be a few days, or a few weeks, at most before they were found. After all, the airline would have been able to track the plane's journey and they would find the wreckage and search for survivors. But that hadn't happened as far as they knew. It was starting to get a little frustrating.

"Of course they'll find us, and then they'll take us home and everything will be back to normal," in a way, he didn't want to be found. At least on the island he could spend a lot of quality time with Sora, and even though she didn't love him back, Matt wasn't around to make him feel worse. At the same time he felt guilty for thinking that. Sora wanted to be home and he wanted to be there too. But that little voice wouldn't go away.

"You're right. Hey, maybe Catherine will have forgiven you by the time we get back," he chuckled under his breath. He sure hoped that she hadn't. Anyway, she was still in France, and she had probably met someone else by now…

* * *

Tai couldn't have been more wrong about what everyone was doing or where they were. At the same time as Tai and Sora were having their conversation, Matt was sitting in his apartment. T.K and Kari were sitting on the couch across from him, and he sat in one of the dining table's chairs. Catherine was standing behind him, leaning against a wall. He wasn't exactly sure why Catherine was there, but that wasn't what was taking up his attention. T.K and Kari were supposed to be at school, but instead they had called him and told him that they would meet him. Now they sat on his couch, looking extremely nervous. T.K was biting his lip and Kari was playing with her fingers. They had been sitting like that for five minutes, and yet they hadn't said anything. It was a month after the memorial, so Matt thought that the two youngsters were maybe going to talk to him about the crash or something. That would explain Catherine's presence.

"You guys called me so that we could talk, and yet you've just sat there for the past five minutes. Just say what you want to say. It's not like I'm a big scary monster," he ignored the remark from behind him and continued on, "If you aren't going to say anything, then you should be at school. In fact, I should call Mum now and tell her-

"Kari's pregnant," Matt sat very still after T.K's outburst. Kari stared at the floor and T.K looked as though he was about to jump up and race out of the door. From the silence behind him, Matt could tell that Catherine was shocked too. To say that he was shocked was an understatement. He felt many emotions- shock, anger, sadness, guilt- he had told Tai that he would make sure this wouldn't happen after all. But mostly he was shocked. This was Kari and T.K. They were supposed to be innocent teenagers, representing hope and light. He still thought of them as little kids, and now this. He couldn't move; he couldn't think. His mind seemed to have gone completely blank.

"Uh… Matt? Are you okay?" he blinked as a hand waved in front of him. It was then that he realized that five minutes had passed since T.K's little outburst. He nodded slowly in response to the –he thought it was Catherine's- question. He ran his hand through his hair, something he always did when he was angry. He could see T.K stiffen across from him. T.K knew that he only did that when he was angry.

"I umm… uh… I mean… oh, I don't know what I'm supposed to say! You guys are still in school and… and… what did your parents say?" he jumped up and began to pace around. Tai would have been much better in this situation. Light, Tai was going to kill him! Well… he would have killed him if he could have. From the looks on T.K and Kari's faces, they hadn't told their parents yet. He took a deep breath.

"We thought that we'd tell you first. We knew that you would freak out and… well… we thought that we owed it to you to tell you first," Kari pretended to be calm, but he could hear the wobble in her voice. She was scared of what he would say. Catherine moved from behind him and grabbed his shoulders.

"Stop pacing- it's annoying," he obediently sat down and she smiled before turning to the others, "Now… I assume that you want an opinion on this, right? Well, I'll give you mine. I am disappointed in the two of you- I thought better of you- but these things happen I suppose. Matt, why are you laughing?" He couldn't help it. T.K and Kari had no idea what she was saying. She had unconsciously chosen to speak French, and although Matt understood, T.K had never learnt the language properly. He only knew a few phrases.

"You're speaking French. They don't understand you," he stopped laughing, "Tai would kill me. He is going to kill me, somehow, when he finds out. Anyway, I agree with Catherine. I am disappointed with the two of you, but what's done is done. I can't say anything else. What are you going to do about education and everything?" He could feel their relief. Catherine dropped onto a chair next to him. He still didn't understand why she was there, but she had been visiting him a lot. He didn't mind- they had their occasional word fights, but it was all fun. But still, this was a conversation between him and his younger 'sibling'- he didn't really know if she was supposed to be there. But he couldn't exactly throw her out, could he? He almost felt as though the world had turned upside down to get him; next he would find out that a crazy flying penguin had taken over Japan.

"We haven't completely decided yet. I will finish school somehow, and we were thinking that Kari could take classes up until she can. And then… well, we have to find out what Mum and Dad say about it…" at least they were being serious about it. Although they didn't seem to know what they were going to do, there was a lot of evidence that they had been talking about it. What he wouldn't give for Tai to be there to help him out.

"Well you had better get to school now. I need a bit of time to get used to this," they obediently grabbed their bags and left the apartment, after exchanging goodbyes with both him and Catherine.

"I'll make some tea," he stared after the French girl as she began to search through the cupboards for the tea. How did she know that he always drank tea when thinking about problems like this?

"Why do you think that it is your fault?" that hadn't been what he had meant to ask, but Tai was on his mind, and he wanted to know what had happened between Catherine and his best friend. They had gotten along so well, or so Sora had told him. She didn't stop looking through the cupboards, but she stiffened.

"I have already told you. I told him to go away and that I never wanted to see him or Sora ever again. It was unfair, I know. I was just upset because he told me that he couldn't pretend anymore. You see… when we broke up the first time it was because I knew that he was in love with someone else. I didn't know who, but then… I figured it out when they came. I told him that I didn't care that he loved Sora, and that I still wanted to be with him. After all, I loved him. And then… on the last night he told me that he couldn't pretend. I got annoyed at him, as you can imagine, and I got annoyed at Sora too, although she had no idea why. All she knew was that Tai and I were screaming at each other in French. It was so stupid. I would give anything to take those words back now," it was quite an interesting tale. It explained a lot. At least now he knew for sure.

"So Tai was in love with Sora. And I never got to apologise to him for not noticing," she paused in taking two mugs out of the cupboard. Her blue eyes seemed to weigh him up as she looked at him.

"I don't think he wanted an apology. You must know by now that Tai is much more complex than he appears. He knew that you didn't mean to hurt him, and so he made it so that you weren't hurting him. Or something like that. You have nothing to apologise for," she placed the mugs on the bench and came back to sit next to him again.

"But if I can't blame myself, then what else can I do?" she didn't have an answer. The silence stretched on…

To be continued…

Litanya: Well, I hope you like this chapter. Please review and yeah… have a good afternoon/morning/night!


	11. Fish and Fire

Litanya: Hi again. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, and to everyone who has read this fic. I don't own Digimon.

_**The Island Holiday**_

_**Chapter 10: Fish and Fire**_

The island had truly become their home now. It was a weird sort of home, of course. Whenever she thought of going back to Odaiba, she always thought of it as going back. As much as she missed her friends and family, life on their island wasn't all that bad. She loved peaceful moments like this when the two of them sat around the fire. It was a cozy spot that they had found a couple of days after they had become stranded on the island. Tai lay on the sand on the other side of the fire, staring up at the stars whilst she sat leaning against a smooth rock. They often sat like this- every night in fact- but it was not often that she sat back and thoroughly enjoyed it. Often her thoughts were back in Odaiba, wondering what everyone was doing. At this moment, however, Odaiba was far from her mind.

She didn't know what she would have done if it had been anyone but Tai who she had been stranded on an island with. He somehow always managed to keep her entertained and when she was depressed about being stuck on an island, he always tried to do something to cheer her up. He had never been good at listening before, but now he listened to all of her worries, and surprisingly, managed to convince her that she was worrying about nothing. She remembered back to one of the first times she had been depressed on the island…

_Flashback_

_She stared out at the ocean, with the blanket she was supposed to be cleaning on her lap. She couldn't concentrate on her chore. Odaiba was so far away, and there had been no rescue crews to save them. Four days on the island, and no sign that the rest of the world still lived. It was very depressing. It didn't help that there was a lot of debris still floating in the water. She seemed to attract things which had been gifts from one person to another, things like inscribed bracelets or lighters or letters which were so wet that the writing had smudged until it wasn't legible… all of those things seemed to seek her out, as though they wanted to give her a special message themselves._

_Every time she found something like that, she couldn't help but cry. She always made sure that Tai wasn't around though- she didn't want to upset him too. He spent a lot of his time worrying about his sister, and she didn't want to remind him of her by showing him some of the messages. Especially the one she had found that morning. It had been a small necklace, which had been engraved. It was from a young boy to his little sister. Their pictures had been inside the locket on the necklace. She was scared that if Tai saw it, he would cry. She had only ever seen him cry three times in her life, and all three times she had felt that her world was falling apart._

"_Hey Sora, what's up?' he was in one of his more cheerful moods today. In fact, he almost always seemed to be cheerful. She didn't know how he did it. She only knew that he was worrying about Kari because he talked in his sleep, and he occasionally muttered under his breath. On his bad days he was far from cheerful, and it was usually then that he voiced his fears. After a bit of persuasion of course._

"_Oh, I umm… I'm just washing this," she half-heartedly plucked at the blanket on her knees and looked down at it as though she was really concentrating. She knew that he wouldn't be fooled by that, but she hoped that he would be. She didn't feel like talking. Maybe he sensed her mood, or maybe he just didn't notice anything wrong, but he grinned. It was only then that she realized that he was holding a long stick, "Are you sure that your leg is okay? Is that why you have the stick?" He looked genuinely confused for a moment, before he looked at the stick he was holding._

"_Oh, you mean this? I don't need it to walk; I'm going to go fishing. It's not fair that you do all of this sort of stuff whilst I sort out the leaves that you pick," she sighed. He just refused to admit that he needed to give his injury time to heal. She knew that it hurt him- he sometimes winced when he thought that she wasn't looking- and an injury like that should be given time to heal. Then again, Tai always was impatient._

"_Tai, as I have told you a million times, you need to rest your arm. I'm not bothered about getting the food- you can make up for it once you are okay," he rolled his eyes and began to wade into the water. It was a warm day, and the water was actually quite nice. As Tai attempted to fish- attempted was the right word- she felt her melancholy mood slipping away. She wasn't sure if he was fooling around on purpose or if he actually just didn't know what he was doing. He splashed around a lot, and… it was just too funny to watch. She found herself laughing before she realized that she wasn't sad anymore. After an hour, Tai finally came back, a childish grin of pride on his face. He held something behind his back._

"_Close you eyes and hold out your hand," she did as she was told, having to subdue little bursts of laughter as she did so. She expected him to put a small crab in her hand or something, but whatever he put into her hand was large and slimy. She opened her eyes and stared at a huge fish. He was still grinning at her. Like a child who had learnt to tie his own shoe. The fish wasn't even struggling in her hand._

"_You caught this? I thought that you were just splashing around, hoping that I would feel sorry for you and come and catch the fish for you," she told him, still amazed that he had actually managed to get something. After all, every instinct told her that you were supposed to creep up on your pray, so that you didn't scare it off._

"_I caught it all on my own. Now you can cook it- unless you want to eat it burnt," she laughed. She should have known that he would make her do something. At least he had cheered her up…_

_End of flashback_

"Hey Sora?" Tai enquired from where he stared up at the sky. She jumped. It wasn't often that they talked at night, as they were both usually deep in thought.

"Yeah?"

"What are you going to do if we get rescued and everyone is different?" she hadn't thought about that. Every day had been spent concentrating on getting back; she had never actually thought what it could be like back there.

"They won't be different. After all, it has only been just over a year. They can't have changed much, and they won't have forgotten us. Once we get back, everything will go back to normal," she had to repeat that to herself in her head; otherwise she would never believe it. She and Tai had already changed- they had become harder in a way. Trinkets from the dead no longer made her cry. She and Tai had collected a few that they hoped to return to friends and family of the ones they had belonged to. If they had already changed, would they change more if they were forced to stay on the island for much longer?

"That's what I tell myself. I don't know how much longer I can take wondering what it is like back in Odaiba. Is Kari okay? Is Matt still blaming himself? I didn't even get to apologise to Catherine for our fight… this whole thing just sucks," ah, so that was what was wrong with him. He was still worried about that fight with Catherine. Curiosity got the better of her.

"What exactly was that fight about?" she knew that she was prying, and that he needed to be told that his fears were perfectly normal, but she couldn't help asking the question. She needed to know, "Anyway, you can apologise when we get back and I'm sure that she'll forgive you and the two of you will be a couple again." He sat up, the dim light of the fire showing his face. He had his eyes closed and it appeared that he was struggling with something.

"It doesn't matter what the fight was about… well, in a way it does I guess. I just told her the truth. The reason why we broke up in the first place was because she found out that I was in love with someone else. I wasn't cheating on Catherine," he said this last bit quickly so that she didn't interrupt with a harsh comment, "but still… it was really bad of me to pretend that I wanted to be with Catherine when I didn't. Anyway, when we got to Paris she figured out who I loved and she decided that she still wanted to be my girlfriend anyway. I agreed to it because… well, I needed to move on again. In the end though, I knew I couldn't lie to her again, so I told her that I couldn't pretend and she got angry at me. And because you were there at the time, she got angry with you too. But none of that really matters anymore. I still need to apologise," she was shocked. Tai and Catherine's relationship had seemed so perfect, and yet he wasn't in love with Catherine at all. Well… maybe he did love her, but whoever it was who he loved more was keeping him from acting on his love for Catherine. That was how she read the situation anyway. She desperately wanted to know who he was talking about, but she didn't want to make things too awkward. The question was just too personal.

"Whoa… well, umm… it'll all work out. I'm sure that she will accept your apology when we get back. After all, she only said those things on the spur of the moment. She has had a lot of time to calm down now, so she'll forgive you. You shouldn't worry about it so much," she had missed talking like this. If she had to pick the one thing that she was completely grateful to the island for, it was the fact that she and Tai could now talk about anything as they had done when they were younger. The island had fixed their friendship.

* * *

A month had passed since T.K and Kari had told him their news. He sat at the kitchen table at his apartment with half a dozen bills set out in front of him. His attention couldn't have been further from them if they hadn't existed. A lithe girl sat across from him- he still couldn't call her anything but a girl- and she held his attention, even if she didn't realize it. She was sitting in front of her own pile of bills, as well as a small silver lap top.

"Thank you for helping me with this. I didn't realise that the Japanese system was so different to what I was used too. I owe you a lot," he just shrugged.

"I couldn't let those nasty companies threaten a nice little French girl like you. What kind of a friend would I be if I let them harass you? I do have the crest of Friendship after all," he motioned to his left arm, where she could just see the symbol for friendship tattooed onto his skin. As a sign of their friendship, Tai, Sora and Matt had all faced their fears and as a result, the three of them each had a tattoo of their own crest on their left arm. It had originally been to make sure that they could recognize each other if they were separated for many years, but it was mainly a symbol of their friendship; they would face everything together. Or at least that was what they had promised.

"Well, I want to thank you anyway. Come on, pack away all of that paperwork and follow me. For everything that you have done, I am going to treat you to dinner," she pushed her lap top into its case and stood, gathering her papers with her free hand. He raised an eyebrow. From the view he could see out of his window, it was still mid-afternoon. And he hadn't really done anything for her. He had only helped her to settle in Japan. She never had explained why she had moved to Odaiba, but he knew that she just wanted to be near people who knew what she was going through. That was why she stayed around him a lot. And he wanted to be near her because she knew what he was going through. At least, that was the reason he wanted to believe anyway.

"Catherine, it's only three in the afternoon. It's too early for dinner!" she pouted at his words and after a few moments he sighed in defeat. Why did she always tie him up in knots like that? He knew that he should technically stay and finish off paying his bills and start to clean the apartment, but he definitely didn't want to upset her. The mere thought of making her feel insulted or hurt made him cringe. This wasn't the first time that she had gotten what she wanted from him, and he doubted that it would be the last time either. He had a feeling that she was going to be his friend for a very, very long time, "Oh, alright, I guess a few hours won't hurt. But where are we going to do before dinner?" She smiled, her blue eyes radiating a happiness that had been non-existent half a month before. He frowned suspiciously. She had had all of this planned from the start. He had wondered why she had picked up the system so easily. But he had already accepted; he couldn't let her down now. The idea only tempted him for a millisecond, but as soon as he had thought it, he felt guilty. He was frustrated with himself.

"Let's go to the memorial," he was surprised. Why did she want to go there? His face must have changed because she quickly added, "I need to say goodbye to something that never really existed." He didn't quite understand, but he nodded anyway. He had something that he needed to say there too.

"Alright then, let's go. I have to say goodbye to something too," for some reason her expression changed for a millisecond to an emotion that he couldn't read. He thought that he was very good at reading emotions, but it couldn't have been hope that he had seen in her eyes. He grabbed his jacket and locked the apartment. It was time to say goodbye to his relationship with Sora.

* * *

Kari peered around the corner into her living room, watching the scene in front of her with an undisguised curiosity. T.K stood behind her, mumbling incoherently about not being able to see. The objects of their attention didn't seem to notice that they were being spied upon. Matt and Catherine sat on the Kamiya's couch. That was a regular occurrence nowadays- Catherine was always over visiting Kari and T.K, and since T.K practically lived at the Kamiya apartment, this was the only place that Matt could really see his younger brother. No, the unusual thing was that Matt and Catherine were sitting on the couch _holding hands_. They seemed to be perfectly comfortable with the situation too. They were only talking now, but the hand holding meant something. She hoped that they had gotten over their lost relationships and had finally seen what was in front of them.

"Okay, so maybe it was a good idea to get Catherine to come over here. I don't think that even you would have predicted this result though," T.K's deep voice whispered into her ear. She didn't want to admit that he was right, but she couldn't really take the credit for all of this. It had been her idea to bring Catherine to Japan too, but she had only done so because she had heard that the girl was depressed. She had never really counted on the French girl bringing Matt out of his shell though.

"They needed each other, that's all. And now they probably realise that they have found what they needed in each other, and everything else has developed from there. I admit that I never foresaw this, but it was one possible result of her coming here," together they backed away from the living room entrance and went back into Kari's room. Their homework lay scattered all over the floor, with Maths in one pile and physics in ten.

"I think that I'll be sick if I see another physics question. Let's do Japanese instead. After all, the book is pretty good, and so it is a more relaxing subject," she had to agree with him. Their physics homework had been impossibly hard and as a result the only answers that they had to the questions were question marks.

"Okay, we'll do Japanese in a second. I just want to call Mimi for a few minutes," she picked up the phone, but T.K took it from her before she could dial, "Hey, that's not fair!" He held the phone above his head, out of her reach.

"It isn't fair on Matt and Catherine for you to tell the others about it at the moment. After all, we have our own secrets from them. It would be like Matt telling your parents about the baby," he paused for a second, considering, "We should actually tell them about it soon, otherwise they are going to kill us just for keeping it a secret for so long. Then they will kill us for the other stuff about it." She pouted, but she moved towards her Japanese books.

"I just wanted to tell her that I don't think that she has to worry about Matt anymore. I know that she worries about him because he bottles his feelings away most of the time, and so I just wanted to calm her worries. But you are right. They have been good for us and so we should keep their secret until they tell decide to tell everyone. And I know that we should tell my parents about…"

"About what?" Kari jumped a mile as her mother appeared in the doorway to her room. Her father was behind her, also looking curious. She felt her knees start to shake, but she couldn't hide it from them anymore. She motioned them into the room and they cautiously sat on her bed.

"Mum, Dad… we have something to tell you," T.K grabbed her hand from behind her and she squeezed it quickly. She didn't want to be there at that moment. She had no idea what their reaction was going to be.

"Kari's pregnant, we know," they froze. Her mother had said it so calmly that they had almost missed the magnitude of it. They knew.

"Someone already told you?" the shock of the situation was enough to take away Kari's nervousness. Her parents knew. She didn't have to tell them. But if they had known all of this time, why hadn't they said anything? Her mother sighed and shifted in her seat on the bed.

"No, I just recognized the signs. I was only eighteen when I was pregnant with Tai. I was hoping that you wouldn't do the same as I did but… with what has happened recently… Look, we are a little disappointed in you, but we're not going to throw you out or anything. We love you Kari and you too T.K, and we don't want to lose you. We have talked about this and we will support you in any way," this was not what she had been expecting. She had thought that they were going to yell, scream or do anything but sit there calmly.

"You are our family- nothing will ever change that. These past months have made us realize what it is like to lose family and we never want to go through it again. Besides, we had always said that we wouldn't need to yell at you if you were in this situation. But if you ever see your brother in the next life, I'll bet that he'll yell at you enough to make you wish that you'd never even met T.K," her father added, which explained a few things about their reaction to her. She felt tears come to her eyes. Her parents were being so nice and she missed her brother. In a way, she _wanted_ to be yelled at by Tai. She would do anything to be able to be yelled at by him. She was grateful that she had understanding parents.

"Thank you," those were the only words that she could find to say. T.K seemed to be in the same situation. She could only reach over and give her parents a hug. She was lucky to have such a great family.

To be continued…

Litanya: Well, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to review if you wish and have a good… whatever time it is! (For me it is a good night.) The next update may be a little late as my exams start soon, and I really need to study.


	12. Autumn Leaves

Litanya: Hi again. I don't own Digimon. I am sorry that this has taken so long, but I have had exams, and I still have a couple (but those are a week away). And for anyone following the World Cup… the Socceroos (Australia!) are awesome! They're ranked 47 I think, and they beat Japan (rank 14) 3-1 yesterday. Yay!

**_The Island Holiday_**

_**Chapter 11: Autumn Leaves**_

Just over two years had passed since the crash now. Over two years of living on an island, eating leave and fish, and only having one other person for company. It didn't sound very fun, but Tai found that there were moments where he wouldn't be anywhere else. This morning was a good example. He had woken up just before sunrise. Sora was still asleep- it had been her turn to watch the fire late into the night and so he decided to let her sleep. He knew that she worried about the others at nights, and any rest that she could get he wanted her to take. He moved silently to the beach and washed his face with the salt water to wake himself up. It was pretty dark, but the sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon. Once he felt that he was awake enough, he walked along the beach whilst watching the sun rise. Some of the trees to his left were losing their leaves, and the wind blew them around across the sand. Luckily the leaves they were eating (Sora had told him their proper name, but even she couldn't deny that they were just leaves) were not among the ones on the ground. The swirling leaves were all a dark yellow or a light orange and they had made beautiful patterns in the breeze. He had finally settled on a rock away from the beach in among a group of trees, and watched. In Japan he had never really taken the time to appreciate nature. Of course, when he had gotten back to where Sora was now awake, she demanded to know where he had been because she had been a little worried when he didn't respond to her call, but he had still had a peaceful start to the day. The rest of the day had gone relatively quickly, and he now found himself lying on the ground next to the fire, staring at the stars. A very peaceful day.

"Hey Tai," Sora asked from her spot on the other side of the fire. He turned his head so that he was facing her direction, but he was feeling sleepy from the fire, so he wasn't paying all that much attention.

"Yeah?" he mumbled, as he realized she was waiting for him to make some sign that he had heard her. She still seemed to hesitate before continuing. It was obvious to him that she wasn't exactly sure of what she wanted to ask- whether she was unsure of his answer, or unsure of hers- and so he knew that she was going to bring up Japan in some way.

"If… no _when_ we get back to Odaiba," he briefly noted that she didn't call Odaiba home, "I mean… now that we've been here for two years, is there anything that you want to change about your life in general?" He woke up a bit now. He knew that Sora liked thinking about that sort of thing, but he had decided a long time ago that his life would probably never end up going the way he wanted it to, and as a result he liked to take every day as it came. Well… he tried to anyway.

"I don't know, I've never really thought about it. I believe in that saying that goes 'life is like a box of chocolates- you never know just which one you'll get.' I never really dwell on what I can change in the future- I like thinking on what I can change right now. I know that I am avoiding the question in a way, but I honestly don't know what I'd change. Maybe… maybe I wouldn't stress over my exams and my work as much… then again, I never really stressed over them anyway," he knew that he was blabbering, but the question had surprised him. Why had she asked _that_ question? Was there something big in her life that she wanted to change when she got back to Japan? "Is there anything you want to change?" She stared at the fire for a few moments and he wasn't sure if she was going to answer.

"My priorities would change," she said finally, "It's amazing what a little time apart from everyone can make you realize. You finally realize what the most important thing in your life is, who the most special people you know are. I must say, I have learnt a lot, and some of the answers are different than I thought." He blinked. He kind of understood what she meant, generally, but he had no idea about the specifics. He had learnt a lot about himself too- for instance, he actually missed his political science classes more than his soccer practices. Of course, he and Sora had devised a way to play soccer on the Island, but it just wasn't the same as his soccer practice.

"Well, there's nothing like a little solitude to get you to know yourself. It's like we've gone to one of those 'spiritual camps' and stayed there for two years. But the things you've discovered can't be too different from what you knew anyway, can it?" the expression on her face told him that she wasn't sure about that.

"Well… you've been in love with two people at the same time, right? How are you supposed to know which one you're _in_ love with when you're surrounded by all of your friends and family who you love in a million different ways? I know; I know… I'm the digidestined of Love and I can't figure that out," now he was really confused. Love was her expertise, not his. He had enough problems with it as it was. Then again, he _did_ love two people at the same time, and he did know who he loved more. But how was he supposed to explain it? Did she really expect an answer? He looked back up at the stars, but they didn't help him this time. He could feel her eyes on him as if they were trying to see through his head to where the answer lay. He sighed and kept his eyes on the sky.

"Yeah, I love two people very much, but it's easy to tell which one I'm in love with. I love this girl more than I love Catherine. The trick is to not think about it, and then the answer comes. I can't be more specific than that, other than you want to be around one of them more than the other. And… umm… yeah," he felt his cheeks turn pink as he realized that he was talking about love with Sora. How did this happen? Was he going to start asking her about Courage next? To him, Sora was a physical embodiment of Love- she loved everyone and everything indiscriminately, and until that moment, he had been sure that she knew exactly how and why she loved everyone. Well… if he couldn't gather up the simple courage needed to ask her out, then he guessed that she was allowed to be a little confused as to how she loved someone. It was only fair after all.

"Are you going to tell me who this mysterious girl is yet? I _need _to know Tai!" strangely enough, he was more comfortable now that she was asking him questions like this again. He would take being hounded for an answer about his own love life than a question about love in general any day. At least he kind of knew what he was talking about with his own life.

"No. You know her and it might make the situation even worse. I want to keep my silence until she breaks up with her boyfriend, if she ever does, which will probably be never. So you will never know," he flashed a grin as she groaned. She really did want to know, but he couldn't risk telling her. They had grown to be close friends again, and he didn't want that to disappear. He especially could not risk it now, when they were alone on an island. It would be a very, very, very unbearable experience.

"Do you think Matt has a new girlfriend by now?" she was jumping topics so quickly that he was starting to get mentally dizzy. He prayed for a rescue boat to find them right at that moment so he wouldn't need to answer, or anything to happen that would interrupt the scene. Nothing came. The stars really were being mean to him.

"I don't know. You know Matt better than I do, but even I know that he takes a long time to get over things that hurt him emotionally. Then again, two years is a long time, and if the right person came along… I just don't know," he said all of this cautiously as he didn't know what her reaction would be. He didn't know if he could deal with it if she started crying about how much she missed him or something. Well… he would probably just do what he had always done if she and Matt had had a fight- comfort her and tell her that everything was going to be okay. However, it turned out that he didn't have to worry about it.

"I hope he has. I don't want him to be sitting around his apartment all miserable and blaming himself. He needs to move on. He always was too serious about everything," Tai struggled to keep his jaw from dropping. She _wanted _Matt to move on? She was a lot stronger than he was. He had never wanted her to have a boyfriend, other than himself of course. But here she was, saying that she hoped he had moved on. She had a lot more courage than he did.

"You _want_ him to have another girlfriend? But then… when you get back, you'll end up having to either get him to break up with his girlfriend, or you'll be heartbroken for a long, long time. We could be rescued tomorrow; what would you do if he had a girlfriend?" the words were out of his mouth before he could speak. Of course he knew that she would never intentionally hurt someone else by stealing their boyfriend, but she loved Matt… didn't she? She took a long time to answer again, and she traced her tattoo of her crest as she spoke.

"I would wish them all the best for the future. I was in love with Matt… I'm sure that I was, but I just realized that there is someone who, in your words, I love more," she smiled a bit at that and shook her head a little, "I never realized that it was possible to love someone more than someone else, but… I guess that you can. Maybe the whole point of us getting the crests we did was to show us that even though we think we know everything about something, we can never _really_ know everything about it." He kept silent as she seemed to drift off into thought. But he couldn't stay silent for long. He wanted to know.

"So, who is this other guy you love more than Matt?" she blinked at him as though she had forgotten that he was there. Then she laughed.

"If you want to know the answer to that question, you have to tell me who you love first," he had expected an answer along those lines. Her words about the crests made him wonder though. He knew that it took a lot of courage to fight for your friends and family, and he knew that it was hard to gather courage to ask someone out, but… he _should_ have been able to say the words he wanted to. He _should_ have answered her question. But instead of doing the brave thing and tell her what he felt, he chickened out.

"Well, I guess that I won't be finding out that answer for a while then," they fell into silence, neither of them noticing that the other was looking at them from the corner of their eye.

* * *

The twins were now two months old, Kari realized as she settled her son down in his crib. T.K was settling their daughter down on the other side of the room. Yep, they had twins. They had named the twins Taichi and Sora, and the little twins seemed to be well on the path of living up to their namesakes. They were only two months old, but their favourite things to put in their mouths seemed to be objects that were round and black and white, like mini soccer balls. All of the digidestined had fallen in love with the twins, and Kari and T.K never had to look far for a babysitter. Not that they had taken their friends up on that offer yet, but it was good for the future.

"Thank goodness they're finally asleep!" T.K sighed in relief and looked at his watch. It was ten thirty. She had never thought before that ten thirty was late, but with the twins waking up at odd hours during the night and sleeping in irregular hours during the day… the problem was that they never usually woke up at the same time. Taichi usually awoke first, and just when he was about to go back to sleep, Sora would start crying and they would have to settle her down as well. She loved the twins with all her heart, but there were trying times as well. She was just glad that her parents hadn't thrown them out just yet. T.K was working and they were saving up for their own apartment, but they couldn't afford to move just yet. Her parents were so considerate about everything and she felt extremely guilty. After all, she and T.K were not the only ones woken by the twins' cries during the night.

"I wonder why your twins have such a weird sleeping pattern," Matt remarked from where he was seated on the couch, "According to Joe most babies just sleep most of the night and pretty much all day. The twins seem to like being awake." Kari nodded as she sunk into the nearest armchair. The digidestined were all gathered in the living room of the Kamiya apartment. Her parents had gone out, and so the others had decided that it was a good time to have a gathering. Kari just wanted to sleep, but she also wanted to talk. She contented herself to just sitting in the armchair. She could sleep soon.

"It's got something to do with my family. According to my mother, Tai and I were also difficult- we liked being different or something. It'll get better soon, or so my Mum says," T.K also flopped into a nearby chair. She knew that he was exhausted. He had had a seven o'clock meeting that morning at his job. He worked for a local newspaper as an editor. Usually one would have to have gone to university to get a job like his, but his mother had been training him to be an editor since he had shown an interest in the job when he was fourteen. It also helped that his Aunt, who had helped to train his editing skills, ran the local paper that he now worked for. He had had to earn his spot before she would let him work there though.

"I'm just intrigued at how a difference in genes can cause insomnia-like symptoms," Izzy mused. Although he didn't have his lap top in front of him now, she could almost see him typing away, trying to find some way to explain it. Mimi hit the short brunette over the head, and Kari knew that she had seen it too.

"Izzy, do you have to try to know _everything_? Tanja, I don't know how you put up with it," this last was directed at Izzy's girlfriend, a quiet brunette who had slowly been adopted into their group of friends. Tanja just smiled.

"I hide his lap top every second day when he gets home from work," Kari had always wondered why Izzy didn't bring his lap top to their gatherings. Now she knew why. Joe snickered at Izzy, who was mock-glaring at his girlfriend. Mimi just gave Tanja an understanding smile.

"I have to take Joe's books away after nine pm every night unless he has assignments otherwise he would be buried in books by now," Joe's laughter cut short and everyone else laughed. Joe and Izzy were just too studious most of the time.

"So Izzy, have you gotten any further in our project?" Joe asked, ignoring his girlfriend, who was talking quietly to Tanja, occasionally giggling. Kari sat back and watched the group, too tired to really participate in the discussions. Matt had joined Izzy and Joe's conversation about trying to get their respective girlfriends to spend less time dragging them around shopping centers, and the three of them were trying to drag Ken and Cody into the debate. Catherine had joined Mimi and Tanja in their secret discussion. Davis and T.K were talking about a basketball game that they had seen, and Miyako was trying to help Cody with his Maths homework when he wasn't talking with Matt and the other guys. She truly loved evenings like this, even when she was tired. Although they made her remember that her brother and Sora were gone, they also made her remember the good times.

"Hey Kari, wake up," she sat up and blinked. Izzy, Tanja and the others were gone. The only ones left in the room were herself, T.K, Matt and Catherine. It had been Catherine who had woken her. Matt seemed to be doing the same service for T.K. She blushed as she realized that she had been asleep and so she had missed saying goodbye to the rest of the gang. Catherine noticed, "Don't worry about the others leaving. We offered to wake you up, but they insisted that you needed to sleep. We agreed. But I think that you would get a better sleep if you were actually in a bed, not an armchair." There was a hint of a smile on her face, but she was trying to look serious. Then again, Catherine always seemed to wear a smile now.

"Thanks," she yawned and Catherine tried not to laugh.

"We should go now. Have a good sleep," the blond couple left and Kari shuffled sleepily to her room. She opened the door and… Sora started crying. T.K groaned behind her.

"I'll go," she told him before firmly pushing him away from the twin's room. He didn't need to be told twice. He didn't even protest. She sighed and picked her daughter up, rocking her gently, "Now what do you want, little one?" She murmured to her. Two innocent eyes stared back up at her, and a tiny hand came up to try to touch her nose. As much as she hated waking up at night, as much as she grumbled about having to try doing homework to catch up on the months of school she had missed, she wouldn't change anything she had done. Still, she could do without the sleepless nights…

To be continued…

Litanya: Thanks for reading this, and I'm sorry that it is short. And the second half is pretty boring… sorry about that. Anyway, please review and I'll try to update again as soon as possible. Have a good night/day/afternoon etc!


	13. The Escape

Litanya: Hi again. I am sorry that it has taken so long for me to update this, but I have had exams and I am sick with the flu. Anyway, thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. There is only one major time jump left in this fic, and it occurs near the start of this chapter, so after this time ill progress more… normally. I don't own Digimon by the way!

_**The Island Holiday**_

_**Chapter 12: The Escape**_

Five and a half years had now passed since they had ended up on the Island. Tai waded into the ocean and stopped when the water reached the back of his knees. The water was refreshing in the humid summer's heat. They were testing their raft. Yes, after five years of procrastination, they had finally figured out how to make one. Neither of them had discussed why it had taken them so long to get about building it. Tai knew the reason he had built it so slowly. He loved the Island. It was almost as if all of his hopes and dreams were right there in front of him there. He was scared that if they got back to reality they would fade. He and Sora had gotten so much closer because of the Island. He had finally come up with the courage to tell her how he felt about two years ago…

_Flashback_

_It was another night by the fire, but this time both of them were sitting as far away from the flames as possible. The night air was warm around them and mosquitoes buzzed as they flew around their prey. Sora and Tai were swatting the mosquitoes away absently. They were used to flying bugs and insects now. It could not have been too late into the night because the sky was still light. It often was light until very late on the Island, and the Sun rose very early. Sora was seated on the rock she usually leant against, and Tai was sprawled on the ground off to one side. There were no stars to stare at, so he contented himself to staring at the flames. He preferred to look at the stars- they reminded him of his little sister- but the flames would do. Sora looked lost in thought as she stared off over near the horizon. He watched the flames carefully, reminded of the time he had saved Sora from Datamon. He had walked through a wall of fire for her then. He had been scared, but the thought of getting her away from that evil Digimon, of making sure that she was okay, had kept him going. At the time, he hadn't even thought that it would be cool to save her. He had been scared to death that he might lose her. And yet here he was, sitting there with her silently. What would happen if they were rescued right at that moment, and she went straight back to Matt when they got back to Japan? She had said that she didn't want to, but was she serious or was she just trying to be noble? His head started to hurt._

"_Are you okay Tai?" he jumped as her hand landed on his shoulder. When had she moved? The fire seemed to chuckle at him. He put a hand up to his head. Maybe he was sick. Fires were not alive._

"_Uh… I was just thinking, that's all," she jumped off her rock and sat down next to him. She didn't look convinced, but he ignored her skeptical look._

"_What were you thinking about?" she was obviously in the mood to talk. He sighed to himself. He wanted to be alone so he could figure this out (like he hadn't been trying for most of his life about this!) but he wanted to talk to her. He wanted to tell her too._

"_Umm…" he cursed himself. Why couldn't he form a sentence? He needed to make her stop being suspicious! She laughed at him. He wondered what was funny._

"_I'm sorry for laughing but… you just look so… dumb-struck!" Sora shook as she tried to stop laughing. He raised an eyebrow and her shudders began to slow down, "I'm sorry… were you thinking about that girl?" She laughed again as his cheeks heated up._

"_As a matter of fact I was. I'll bet that you were thinking about that guy when you were sitting on that rock before. Your face was so red that you could boil an egg on it," so it wasn't the best comeback, but at least she stopped laughing._

"_Aww… come on Tai! You promised that you would tell me who you loved. We promised in high school, remember. Before I fell for Matt," he did dimly remember a promise like that, but he wondered why she had never brought this point up before. He strained his memory to find out why she wanted to hide it from him. The only thing he could come up with was that they were lying on the soccer field after playing a practice match when they had made the promise. Why were girls so confusing?_

"_I did promise you that, but I never told you when I would tell you," she stuck out her tongue before continuing a little nervously._

"_Do you remember the next thing we said, after that promise?" now he had to REALLY strain his memory. How was he supposed to remember something that they had said eight years before? They had only been 14 at the time after all, and he had never thought that he would end up in this position._

"_We said that if we were both single by the time we were thirty we would marry each other, right?" it had been something vaguely like that anyway. At least he hoped it had been. If he had just made up something like that then he was so dead. Luckily for him, she was nodding._

"_Do you reckon that we're going to have to get married here on the island?" there was a hint of something in her voice. Hope? It could have been hope. He stared into the flames. She was hinting at something. He had put his life on the line for her once before; could he find the courage to put his feelings out in the open? The fire told him to speak. He would have to talk to the fire later about speaking when it didn't have the right to lecture, but now was not the time. _

"_You know that girl I'm in love with? The one who I won't tell you I love?" he waited for her nod before continuing, even though he knew that she knew what he was talking about, "Well… that girl is you." He didn't look at her, but continued to look at the laughing fire. He really needed a word with those flames. He was distracted by a laugh. He looked at her to see a very wide and happy grin on her face. It almost would have rivaled his own grin._

"_You have no idea how long I have waited for you to say something like this. I knew that you would find the courage one day. Now, all you have to do is kiss me," he must have stared at her with a confused look because she sighed and began to explain, "Every girl… well, most girls dream that when a guy tells them that he loves her, he will kiss her if she returns the feelings. So now you have to kiss me." Her grin turned a little mischievous, "Matt kissed me when he told me he loved me." That caused an immediate reaction. If _Matt _had done it, then he would just have to do it better, wouldn't he? The flames agreed. At that point he almost hesitated. Why was he talking to a fire as though it was real? But he couldn't let Matt beat him. The kiss only lasted for a few seconds, but Tai felt like he was in heaven. Was he really alive and stuck on an Island with Sora, or was he dead and in his own sort of heaven? He really couldn't tell at that moment._

"_Uh…" he had just told the girl he was in love with that he loved her, kissed her even, and all he could say was 'uh'? Sora quickly put a hand on his forehead, a light frown on her face._

"_Well, that served two purposes. It demonstrated that you are a better kisser than Matt, and it also told me that you have a fever," Tai stared at her as though she was speaking a foreign language. She wondered what he was thinking, "Are you alright Tai?" He blinked._

"_It was the fire's fault! He laughed at me!" as she struggled to contain her laughter she jumped up and grabbed the rock containing the water. Although the situation was slightly funny, she also knew it was a little serious too. He was sick, and they had no medicine. At least he had finally told her how he felt. As she returned to where she left him, she overheard him shushing the fire for being too cocky. Yep, she was in for a long night…_

_End of Flashback_

He hadn't remembered the rest of that week, and when he had finally become aware of the world again, he had almost fainted when she had told him that she knew he loved her. And now they were testing their raft. He really hoped that it worked. He bent down and tightened one of the ropes made from tree bark. They weren't planning to escape on it that day because they still had preparations to make, but it needed a test run first.

It was the buzzing noise which finally distracted him from the raft. At first he had just dismissed it as an insect, but instead of being a muted disappearing buzz, it began to get louder. Sora was still on the shore, struggling with their fishing stick. It had been decided that he would prepare the raft before lunch whilst Sora got the food. They would test it fully after they had eaten. Whatever that buzzing was, Sora either hadn't heard it, or she was ignoring it. His eyes swept over the ocean ahead of him. All he could see was the natural rise and fall of waves moving in a sinusoidal motion. He bent down to finish the raft again when the noise continued. He sighed, feeling rather irritated. Whatever it was, it had better get ready to- he cut off the curse in his head when he looked up. It was a boat, or something which looked awfully like one. He let the raft go, suddenly not caring about whether or not it would float away. The white boat was heading towards the Island. Tai couldn't see it very well, but he knew it was headed their way.

"Sora, look over there!" she dropped the fishing stick as his call startled her. She looked about ready to yell at him for spoiling her fishing when she looked where he had told her. Her mouth dropped open. She forgot all about the fishing and ran out into the deeper water where Tai was.

"We're going to be rescued!" she cried out joyfully as she threw her arms around him. He noticed that she kept her eyes on the boat at all times, as though she was afraid that it might disappear. Her next question confirmed that, "It is there, isn't it? You can see it too?" He nodded and couldn't help grinning. As the boat came closer he realized that there were four people sitting in it. They were all staring at him and Sora. They didn't look like a rescue party, but at that time the couple just did not care.

"Excuse me, can you tell us what country this island is?" one of the guys in the boat called out as the boat came nearer. Tai and Sora exchanged puzzled glances. The man had spoken in English, and neither of them had been very good at that language. It didn't help that the man's accent made it hard to hear the words.

"We don't speak much English," Sora managed to say slowly in the language, "We are from Japan. We speak Japanese and French." She hoped that that was what she had said anyway. Her English really was very dusty- she hadn't spoken it since she had been in her final year of high school. A woman in the boat spoke up now. Luckily it seemed as though she spoke French.

"Where is this place?" she asked, gesturing to the island. Tai and Sora both shrugged at the same time. They were finding it a little overwhelming to be able to talk to people other than each other. These people were strangers and they didn't know if they were going to rescue them, or just leave them there. It was all rather strange.

"We have no idea. We were on a plane around five and a half years ago from Paris to Tokyo. The plane crashed near here and the two of us managed to escape to this island. We have no idea where it is," Tai told her after pausing for a moment. The woman's expression changed to one of shock. The three others in the boat immediately seemed to demand a translation. When the woman had repeated what she had heard in English, they started to throw questions out at the couple.

"How long have you been on this island?" the woman translated. Tai and Sora looked at each other in confusion. Hadn't they just answered that?

"Five and a half years. We have seen no one else for that whole time. We built a raft recently and we were going to try it out tomorrow, to see if we could get anywhere, but then we saw you," that answer didn't stop the questions from coming. Once they had finally told them everything they had eaten, how they had lived and the details that they could remember from the crash, the woman who translated offered them a hand up onto the boat.

"My name is Alison. I am very sorry about the questions, but it is not every day that you find survivors from a plane crash five years ago on a deserted island. We are here because we are looking for an island to shoot a show about survival in harsh conditions. Pretty ironic, isn't it?" she smiled and the boat began to turn around, "What are your names?" The other three people in the boat were talking quietly between themselves. They seemed pretty upset that they couldn't understand what they were saying.

"My name is Tai Kamiya and this is Sora Takenouchi. Uh… where will we be heading now?" it was all well and good that they had been rescued, but they had absolutely no idea where they were, or where Alison and her friends were from. For all they knew, it could have been a trap.

"We're heading towards the Northern Mariana Islands. They are a bit closer to Japan than here and there is a resort there. That is where we are staying. We will arrange for you to go back to Japan from there. You guys are going to be famous!" they didn't look very enthusiastic about it. The truth was that the presence of the four strangers was beginning to make both Tai and Sora feel uncomfortable. They had been living on an island for five years- they were used to quiet and spacious places. Even though they desperately wanted to see their friends and family again, they were terrified. The boat seemed to be very confining, even though it was a rather spacious boat for what it was. At the Northern Mariana Islands they were going to have to face small groups of people. That thought, strangely enough, scared the living daylights out of both of them.

"Umm… Alison, can we ask you a favor?" Sora asked quietly, her thoughts still dwelling on the fact that they would have to put up with people again. The curly-haired brunette looked a little surprised.

"Of course you can! As long as I can ask for one back," Sora nodded as though she had been expecting that. After all, Alison and her friends hadn't needed to rescue her and Tai.

"Can… Can we wait for a while before announcing who we are? I mean… do we have to tell the world that we survived the minute we get back? We're not really used to people anymore… we have only had each other to talk to and even being on this boat is a little scary. We promise that you and your friends can tell our story… we would just like a couple of weeks to settle back into our lives with our friends and family, to get used to being with people again, before we say anything. Is that okay?" Alison was quiet for a moment, a considering smile on her face.

"One second. I just have to tell my friends about this," she and her friends began discussing the issue on the other side of the boat. Sora threw a glance back over her shoulder. The Island was almost out of sight now.

"What do you reckon the others will say when we get back? Do you think they'll run up to us and scream and hug and everything like when we got back from that soccer camp we went on ages ago?" Tai asked his girlfriend, a slow grin forming on his face, "Or do you reckon they'll faint? I bet that Mimi will. I'm not too sure about Kari." Sora smiled and put her head on his shoulder. She was exhausted. It was barely lunch time, but she felt as though she had been awake for the past week. She didn't understand. Why did she feel so tired? Tai also seemed to feel exhausted. She could tell that from the way he was sitting. He was pretending to be alert, but she knew that he was on the verge of falling asleep. It didn't make much sense.

"I reckon that we should make them faint. I mean, we can't exactly let them know that we're alive the moment we get back to Japan. If we do then we will probably run the other way when they come up excited to see us. Even though they are our friends, the thought of big groups of people is just scary. If we could somehow come up with a way to surprise them… then they will faint!" Tai's grin grew a little wider, and a mischievous glint appeared suddenly in his eyes. She wondered briefly if she was the only one to ever notice that glint before shaking her head slightly. Tai's mother would have noticed it almost every day.

"Well, we'll need to tell our parents we're back. They can update us on everything that has happened, and when they do that I'm sure that we will come up with a plan," Sora felt a grin of her own coming along. She was about to reply when Alison came back.

"We will agree to say nothing to the media about who you are, as long as we get to release your story. But the details about that can come later, when you are back home. The Northern Mariana Islands are coming up. You'll be home soon after that," they felt so relieved that they were surprised when they didn't sigh.

"Thank you so much for this. We owe you a lot," Sora thanked her and her friends. Alison just waved the thanks away.

"What kind of people would we be if we either didn't rescue you or if we abused your rights of privacy? Anyway, you two look exhausted. I suggest that you sleep when we get to the resort. It's not much further," she left then at a comment from one of her friends. Neither Tai nor Sora moved. They had finally escaped the Island. It was time to go home.

* * *

Dr. Joe Kido was about to go on his break (an hour late, but he needed it) when the receptionist on his level rushed up to him with a file.

"Dr. Kido? We need you in examination room one. We have a couple of patients who have had no access to medical care in a long time and they had suffered pretty bad injuries," he sighed and pushed his glasses back up his nose. He mentally swore to buy contact lenses for about the millionth time, before he picked up the file that the receptionist was holding out.

"Isn't Dr. Pong available? I thought that she was helping out in the examination rooms today," he just needed a break. He felt guilty for asking if his colleague could go instead of him however. But he hadn't eaten since breakfast and that had been eight hours ago.

"I'm sorry, but she is in exam room two. Also, the patients asked specifically for you. They said that they knew that you were the best doctor around or something. It was hard to understand them- they speak Japanese, but they have a habit of sneaking in words from other languages in with the Japanese. I did French when I was younger, and I'm _sure_ that some of those words were French, but others just seemed… gibberish to me. Would you like me to get them to wait or…?" she trailed off as he sighed and began walking back to towards the examination rooms.

"Alright, I'll take this one, but after that I need to go on my break. Is that alright?" he winced as he realized that he had been a bit harsh, but the receptionist just smiled understandingly.

"I'll make sure that you are not disturbed," she promised as she hurried away. Joe glanced down quickly at the file. The names jumped out at him. Tai Kamiya and Sora Takenouchi. He stopped dead in his tracks. Was the receptionist playing a sick joke on him? His two friends had died years ago. He turned to see if he could demand an explanation from her, but she had gone. The only thing to do was open the door and find out who exactly was in the room. Maybe there had been a mix-up in the filing system. Maybe Kari had brought the twins into the hospital, and there had been a mix-up that way. After all, Kari's maiden name had been Kamiya, and added to the twins' first names, this mix-up was not unreasonable. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Why did these things always have to happen to him? He completed his journey to the room and, after asking for patience and courage, he opened the door.

Two people awaited him in the room. Both were very tanned, as if they had lived out in the sunshine for many years. He focused on the male first. It looked as though his unruly hair had been chopped with a dull knife. It was a light brown, but Joe thought that he could see evidence of it being darker. That gave another suggestion that this guy had been living in the Sun. His chocolate-brown eyes seemed to light up with a mischievous gleam when Joe entered the room. There seemed to be no obvious injuries on the man, though the way he held his shoulder indicated to Joe that it had been injured at one time. He turned to look at the female. Her hair was cut short and a light auburn colour. Her eyes were a deep brown-red and she too was darkly tanned. A thin scar ran down the side of her face, from just below her left eye to her chin. That seemed to be the only injury that she had to show.

"Hi Joe!" the male called out as he entered the room. It was then that Joe noticed the grin. That was the 'famous' Kamiya grin. He felt his glasses slip down his nose, but for once he didn't push them back up immediately. Instead he pulled off his glasses and pulled a neatly folded cloth out of his pocket. He needed to make sure that his eyes weren't deceiving him. If he hadn't read the name on the file before coming in, even with the grin he wouldn't have jumped to the conclusion that it was Tai. He looked so different. But after reading the name and seeing it, Joe found himself wondering if he hadn't died somewhere and this was his version of Heaven. Sora seemed to sense that that was what he was thinking.

"Joe, it's alright. We are actually here. We survived the crash. We ended up on an island near the Northern Mariana Islands. We would have called and everything but there was no phone. We were rescued the day before yesterday and we got back to Japan late last night. You aren't dreaming," he finally stopped polishing the lenses and popped his glasses back on his nose. He took a seat across from his two friends, who were seated on the examination table.

"Why didn't you tell us that you were back? Or call when you got to a phone to let us know?" he demanded to know once he could finally find his voice, "We thought that you were dead for five years- we have the right to know as soon as you got back." Tai took a breath and was about to answer, but Sora beat him to it.

"We lived on an island for five and a half years. There were no other survivors that we could find, and the only company we had was each other. We were rescued by a group of four people in a boat. In a way, I think they terrified us both, even though they were nice people. When we got to the Northern Mariana Islands, there was a larger group of people there, and it felt really, really weird wandering around amongst them. It was a rather scary experience. We're not used to a lot of people. The airport in Tokyo was like facing six hungry Skullgreymon for us. The only people who know that we are alive and home are my mother and Tai's parents. We want to get used to being around people again before we meet up with the rest of the group so we don't run away from them when they come up and greet us," Joe listened in silence to her explanation. It made sense. He had felt a little weird after returning from the Digital World, and he had been a child then. Tai and Sora had missed out on five and a half years of the adult world. They had been nineteen when they had disappeared. They probably had little idea about how the adult world worked now. They had been isolated from other people. He felt a little bad for not understanding earlier.

"I'm sorry. I know that you would have told us earlier if you could have. I promise that I won't tell the others you are here unless you say that I can… is that alright?" Tai gave him a thumbs up.

"I knew that we could count on you, old reliable Joe. So what's been happening since we left? Mum and Dad refused to tell us anything before we had had a medical check-up," Joe smiled. So, they didn't know anything that had happened. It seemed that T.K was going to get an extra day of life then.

"Well…" Joe started off as he grabbed his stethoscope, "I'll tell you whilst I examine you." It was a pity that he had to tell them about the twins. He had rather liked T.K, and judging from Tai's reaction, the young blond didn't have much time to live…

To be continued…

Litanya: Well, this chapter was a little longer to try and make up for the fact that I haven't updated for what seems to me to be ages. Please review if you would like to. I hope that I didn't write 'whilst' _too_ many times in this chapter. Anyway, have a good night/day/afternoon etc and all Aussies… World Cup is on tonight at 1a.m! We're in the final 16!


	14. The Reunion

Litanya: Well everybody, we've arrived at the end. This is the last chapter of the fic. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and read the fic. I don't own Digimon.

_**The Island Holiday**_

_**Chapter 13: The Reunion**_

Matt took a deep breath. Then, once he had no air left in his lungs, he took another one. He had never really understood why characters in novels took deep breaths in this situation, but now he knew why. Deep breaths made you concentrate on things which didn't scare the living daylights out of you. Now, what could scare the living daylights out of the lead singer of a very popular band who had saved another world when he had only been eleven? What frightened a singer who had been pursued down the streets of Tokyo half of a night by fan girls when he had just been trying to make reservations for dinner? The answer was in the small box he had tucked away under his bed. It was almost like being afraid of a monster under his bed. Almost. He glanced back down at his watch. It was three o'clock, the sun was shining and a warm breeze ruffled the curtains at his window. It was time. He pulled the box out from its hiding place and tucked it into his pocket.

As he walked down the street towards the park where he was meeting his girlfriend, his emotions tumbled around and around and he could barely tell what he was feeling. He kept on thinking about Tai. At a time like this, it just seemed natural that he should think of his best friend. Tai had represented Courage after all. Matt mentally asked Tai to forgive him for stealing his girlfriend. After all, Catherine had been Tai's girlfriend first. He then asked Tai to give him the courage he needed to do what he was about to do.

He and Catherine had been dating for three years. It wasn't all that long- he had dated Sora for about the same length of time- but this felt different. He had been happy when he had been with Sora, and he had no doubt that he had loved her, but he loved Catherine in a different way. It seemed to be more special to him. It hadn't been love at first sight- no, definitely not. He remembered that he had thought that she was a snob. He had never really bothered to get to know her until after the crash. Once he had discovered that she wasn't actually a snob, she had found a way into his heart without him realizing it. He had always wondered why she was there, but when he thought about it afterwards, he had decided that he had _wanted_ her to be there. Her fun-loving attitude had slowly recovered the longer he had known her, and it helped to cheer him up when he started to get too bogged down in his emotions. He knew it was corny, but he had once told her that she was the sunshine in his life. She had laughed and told him that if she was his sunshine, he was her rainbow- always there to cheer her up when she was sad. And so he was now on his way to meet her, with the small box in tow.

"Matt, over here!" he blinked. Had he arrived at the park this quickly? His palms became clammy. He smiled a little nervously and went to join her. She was sitting on one of the swings. For some reason, all of the kids were playing in the sand-box, and the teenagers had been coerced into a game of soccer. He turned away from the teenagers and focused on Catherine.

"Hey, how are you?" he tried to act completely natural. He failed. He could tell by her curious expression.

"I'm fine, but you really don't look well. Are you sure you're okay for this afternoon?" they didn't really have any plans for the rest of the night yet- they usually planned their dates when they got there. It was partially Matt's fault. With all of the media he received from his band, dinner reservations could turn into a game of cat and mouse, where Matt and Catherine were mice and all of the single girls in Odaiba were the cats.

"Yeah, definitely! I have no idea what we'll do, but… I'm fine," Catherine just shrugged and began to swing slowly, a child-like look of glee on her face. She always had loved the swings. He fidgeted with the box in his pocket. She had been giving him hints about wanting to get married, but suddenly he wasn't sure about this.

"Come on Matt, smile! You look like you're about to collapse due to stress," she had stopped swinging and she was staring at him, looking concerned. He noticed that his hands were shaking. He took a deep breath and quickly glanced to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. The kids in the sand-box seemed to have found some sort of lizard and that was keeping them entertained. The parents of the really young kids were watching the lizard as though it would grow fangs and eat their children, and the teenagers were now making bets on who would win their soccer game. Now was the time to do this, if he ever was going to.

"Umm… Catherine, I know that we didn't exactly 'click' when we first met, but I would have to say that meeting you has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me. I can't imagine my life without you," he had unconsciously chosen to speak French; probably so no one could hear if he got rejected, "I really meant it when I said that you are my sunshine. I umm…" He had forgotten the rest of his speech. She was smiling and there was a strange twinkle in her eyes that made him even more nervous.

"Yes," she said simply when he paused to take a breath. He stared at her for a moment, unsure of what she meant. She looked ready to laugh, "You are going to ask me to marry you, and I accept." He felt so relieved that he realized just how stressed he had been. He had worried for nothing. He took the small box out of his pocket, took out the small ring, and placed it on her finger. And, as he and Catherine started to walk to find T.K and Kari, he thanked his friend for giving him the courage he needed.

* * *

Tai sneezed for about the thirtieth time in the past hour. He didn't have a temperature, or a cold, he was just sneezing. It was starting to get annoying.

"Whoa… someone must be thinking about you a lot," his mother commented from where she and Mrs. Takenouchi sat with magazines open in front of them. He was sitting in the living room of the apartment he had lived in his whole life except for his time on the island. His parents had been surprised and very, very pleased when he and Sora had arrived at the airport. Mrs. Takenouchi had moved in with his parents after Kari, T.K and the twins had moved out, and so it had been a little confusing for a while when Sora and Tai moved in. His parents were eager to tell Kari and the others about Tai and Sora being alive, but they respected their decision to keep quiet for a while.

"I'll bet that it's Matt… or T.K. or Kari. I bet that Matt's either asking for Tai's help in some way, T.K's scared that Tai's going to come back from the dead and haunt him, or Kari is just missing him," Sora grinned mischievously as she leant against him. She was sitting on one of the couches with him, whilst the two mothers sat in armchairs across the coffee table from them. At first they had tried to hide the fact that they were a couple from their parents, but it hadn't worked very well. Within a few hours they had told them to drop the act. It had been very weird.

"I'll bet its Matt," Tai said decidedly after another sneeze, "I always said that he talked too much." The doorbell rang before anyone could comment. Tai glanced at Sora. They usually hid when visitors arrived, but he really couldn't be bothered. It was cool where they were seated, and he was really comfortable. Sora seemed to share his sentiments. In fact, if anything, she seemed to settle down as though she wanted to sleep. Mrs. Kamiya got up and answered the door.

"Good afternoon Matt, Catherine. What brings you here this afternoon?" her voice got louder as she brought the couple into the living room. Tai smiled. He hadn't seen either Matt or Catherine yet since the crash. They appeared in the doorway of the living room, and Tai tried to hide his smile and look curious. Sora sat up a little. Matt and Catherine both had the same look in their eyes- something had happened to make them very, very happy. Joe had told them about the relationship between Catherine and Matt whilst he had been examining their health. Tai had felt happy about it. He had always wanted Catherine to find her someone special, and he wanted Matt to be happy too. He had been afraid that Sora wouldn't be as happy, as it meant that Matt really wasn't available anymore, but he hadn't needed to have worried. She had almost gone crazy with excitement. Joe had raised an eyebrow at her enthusiasm. But now they were seeing the relationship Joe had told them about. And he was still happy about it.

"We're sorry Mrs. Kamiya. We didn't realize that you had guests. We can come over later if you like," Matt offered as his eyes fell on Tai and Sora on the couch. Mrs. Kamiya just waved her hand dismissively.

"No, no don't leave. These two live here. I must have forgotten to tell all of you about that. Now, what news do you have for us? You look so excited," Matt and Catherine were almost pushed onto the other couch. Matt gave Tai and Sora a quick glance, but Catherine didn't even seem to notice them.

"We're engaged!" this announcement brought squeals of excitement from the two mothers and Matt and Catherine had to endure many questions and complements from both parents. Sora and Tai barely managed to keep themselves silent. After all, they weren't supposed to know Matt or Catherine.

"I'm sorry; I must have forgotten my manners. I am Yamato Ishida, but everyone calls me Matt," the blond finally managed to turn to the couple on the other couch. They had strange expressions on their faces- a mixture of amusement and joy. It was a strange look.

"I'm Catherine," the 'strangers' just smiled at them.

"Why are you introducing yourselves to us as though we are strangers? You do know us," Sora informed the couple with a grin. She managed to move her hand so that she was covering the scar on her face. She winked at her mother and Mrs. Kamiya, enjoying the confused looks on the faces of the two blonds. Tai picked up where she left off.

"We are your close friends- I can't believe you have forgotten us!" he managed to look outraged. He tried not to grin. He knew that his grin was distinctive.

"I'm sorry… I really don't know you. Maybe you have mixed me up with someone else that you know," Matt looked as though he was about to find an excuse to leave. Then again, having two seemingly perfect strangers tell you that they are your close friends is a little spooky. Sora took pity on him.

"Do you still have your tattoo of Friendship? I told you it has special powers," as the colour drained from Matt's face, Tai decided to let have pity on Catherine. After all, only Matt, Tai and Sora had ever called Matt's tattoo that before.

"Do you still have that stuffed toy which looks like Fleurmon?" if she hadn't been sitting down, she would have fainted.

"Tai… Sora? But… but you guys… you died and…" Matt continued to mumble incoherently. They heard something about imagination running wild and asking for courage. Catherine was staring at them, her mouth wide open. Mrs. Kamiya was shaking her head.

"You guys are going to give people heart attacks if you keep on telling people like that," she lectured them, a small smile on her face. She was happy that they were finally going to end their isolation, "Why don't you tell Matt and Catherine what happened so they don't think that the pair of you just ran away together and left them to stew for the past years." And so they told their story. They had embellished the story a little since they had told Joe what had happened. They wanted the Island to appear to have been very nice to them- which it had been.

"Wow… I can't believe it. I'm sorry but… wow! A deserted island! Hey… why did you tell _Joe_ that you were here before you told us?" it seemed that Matt was finally getting used to the idea that they were in fact in front of him. Tai shrugged apologetically; grimacing as he did so. His injury had never really healed properly.

"We were told that we needed to go see a doctor, and Joe was the only one we'd trust. We would've told you earlier, but it is kind of weird being back in Odaiba. We haven't even told Kari that we're back yet… although I like to call it mercy. T.K is _so_ dead once I find him," Matt's eyes widened.

"Oh crap! I'm so sorry about that! I promised you at the airport that I would make sure that kind of thing didn't happen… and it did. I'm so sorry!" Tai laughed and Sora waved dismissively.

"As if he'd really expect you to watch for that sort of thing when you thought we were dead! I would kill him if he did expect that. It was Kari and T.K's fault. We're developing a plan to get back at them for that. Do you want to help?" it was then that Matt remembered the talk he had promised to have with Tai when he got back. Well, he was back now. Matt wasn't blind- he could see that Tai and Sora were quite happy together now, but he wanted to make sure that Tai knew that he was sorry for what he had done.

"Hey Tai, can I talk to you for a moment?" his best friend looked a little puzzled, but nodded.

"Let's go into the kitchen then," the brunette led the way, his expression one of pure curiosity. Matt followed, trying to figure out what he was going to say. He had wished and wished that he could have had this conversation with Tai, but he had never actually planned it. He had thought that his friend was dead after all. Tai hopped up to sit on the bench, like he always had done since he had been tall enough to do so. That one gesture reminded Matt how little Tai had really changed. His appearance was different of course- you can't stop your body from growing- but his 'inner self' seemed to be almost the same as when he had left, "So what did you want to talk to me about?" Matt jumped and tried to get his thoughts into some kind of logical order.

"I wanted to apologise," he said, watching Tai carefully for his reaction. Tai just looked plain confused.

"You want to apologise for what? I told you before that T.K's actions are his own- you can't control him. I know you tried, and that's all that counts," Matt shook his head quickly.

"I know that. I'm not apologizing for that. I want to apologise for not realizing that you loved Sora too, before the holiday. Everyone else knew about it, but I didn't even notice and I am your best friend. I should've noticed it," once he had gotten started, the words began to come really easily; "I let you down. I was so caught up in my own happiness that I never saw that you weren't happy. When T.K asked me how I had 'dealt' with the fact that you had feelings for Sora I realized the truth. I am so sorry. Will you forgive me?" Tai assessed the situation carefully. If he laughed at what Matt was telling him, then he might hurt him, even though he did actually find it very funny. So he did the next best thing. He grinned.

"You have nothing to apologise for Matt. Yes, I wasn't overly happy with the situation, but I was happy for you guys. You didn't let me down- in fact it made me happier that you didn't know about it. I don't mind you finding out now about it, but I was almost playing a game. I'll admit it- I didn't want to go on the holiday because I thought that I might say something stupid- like tell Sora that I loved her- and then our friendship would be destroyed. I was more concerned that _I_ would destroy our friendship. So don't worry about it; you have nothing to apologise for. Anyway, everything has turned out okay in the end… You don't mind if I am going out with Sora, do you?" the last question came out hesitantly. It had only just occurred to Tai that Sora was his best friend's ex-girlfriend. Well, it had occurred to him before that that was the case, but he had just realized that usually you needed permission from your best friend before pursuing a relationship like that. Matt gave him a flat look, as if he knew what was going through Tai's mind.

"Of course it's okay! As long as it is okay that I'm with Catherine."

"Of course it's okay! You guys look really happy together. I'm glad that you eventually managed to stop blaming yourself and found her," Tai told him as he hopped down from the bench, "I must admit that Sora and I were worried that you would live in a world of self-hatred and guilt because of the crash. I don't know about the first year or two after the crash, but I'm so glad that we didn't find you _still_ blaming yourself." They began to make their way back to the living room, where Sora and Catherine seemed to be chatting amiably. Matt blushed as he remembered the times he had come so close to giving up. He hoped that Tai and Sora never heard about those times.

"We're brainstorming ways to get back at T.K and Kari," Catherine told them as they returned to their seats, "We have a couple of good ideas too." Both Sora and Catherine looked very evil at that moment and so unlike their normal selves that both Tai and Matt paused before sitting down. But then they really wanted to get back at the youngest of the original digidestined too, so they sat down, and as they listened to the plan so far, their expressions changed until they too looked evil. Payback was going to be very fun after all.

* * *

Kari absently wiped some spaghetti from her son's cheek as she listened to Mimi's story about something that had happened in one of her latest modeling shoots. They were at her parent's apartment. It was a celebratory dinner for Matt and Catherine's engagement. Her parents, along with Mrs. Takenouchi, had planned it all very quickly. Matt had already thanked them several times for opening their home for the event, but the Kamiyas would have nothing of it. They were happy to help. Kari could have sworn that they almost believed that Matt was their son.

"Mummy, can we go and play?" her daughter asked her quietly, squirming in her seat. The digidestined had been gathered at the Kamiya apartment practically all day, and the twins had disappeared all afternoon. She had been a little worried at first about where the twins had gone, but her mother had just told her that they were probably playing with the two young adults who were renting the spare room. Kari had wanted to meet these two strangers- if the twins really were playing with them she wanted to make sure that they weren't dangerous- but her mother had told her that she would go and watch them. After all, Kari was supposed to be spending time with her friends. The twins had come out at dinner time, but the two strangers were nowhere to be seen. The twins seemed to be disappointed about that.

"Oh alright. But don't bother those people, okay?" the twins were gone before she could blink. The four year olds were very energetic and fast. Mimi had finished her story, and Mrs. Kamiya had started to clear away the dishes. Joe offered to help her, and she accepted his help with a small nod. Once the table was clear and Joe and Mrs. Kamiya had returned, Catherine stood.

"Firstly I want to thank Mr. and Mrs. Kamiya and Mrs. Takenouchi for organizing this dinner. It has been a very fun day and we appreciate it very much," the table burst into applause and Mrs. Kamiya bowed her head to accept the thanks, "Secondly, we have a surprise for everyone. We have managed to locate two very special guests whom I am sure you will be glad to see. I think the twins just went to get them, so they should be here- ah, there they are." Tai and Sora walked into the room and stopped near the door.

"Hi guys," Sora said. There were a lot of puzzled glances at the table. Everyone except for Matt, Catherine, Joe and the parents was wondering who these two guests were. There was a silence. Joe was the one to break it. He had been let in on the plan of course.

"Hey guys, I was wondering when you would turn up," he grinned and pushed up his glasses. Everyone was staring at him as though he had two heads. They wondered how Joe knew them, "T.K, if I was you, I'd be running at this moment." T.K looked completely baffled. Why should he be running? It wasn't as though these two looked very dangerous. Well, the scar running down the girl's face did look a little menacing, but he still couldn't see what was wrong. Then again… there _was_ something familiar about the two of them that made him sure that he knew them. But where did he know them from? The twins came into the room at that moment.

"Uncle Tai, Aunty Sowa, you pwomised that you would play!" little Taichi exclaimed, saying the words just as Mr. Kamiya had coached him to say them. The world seemed to freeze. T.K didn't hear what the two newcomers told Taichi, nor did he notice when he absently picked his daughter up and set her on his knee. The twins had called them 'Aunty' and 'Uncle'. Okay, so they called all of the digidestined that. But their names… he looked at the even harder. They just stood there, grinning as everyone watched them in some kind of shock.

"T-Tai?" Kari whispered her eyes wide and her face very, very pale. She looked as though she were about to faint.

"Yes Kari? Wait, I have to say something first. You made a very important promise to me at the airport- well, it could be called a couple of promises- and you seem to have broken both at the same time. If I do my Maths correctly, you would still have been in school and you weren't married. Oh, and of course, you promised not to do that sort of thing whilst I was away. So it was three promises. What did I tell you I would do if you broke the promise?" Tai didn't care that most of the people at the table were confused. He laughed as T.K quickly placed his daughter on the floor and bolted. Kari still looked wide-eyed at him, and Matt, Catherine and Joe were laughing so hard that they were crying. He heard Sora sigh beside him. They were finally home. He knew that they had a lot of explaining to do, but he didn't care. They had survived to make it home. They knew that they could now get through anything the world threw at them.

"Hey guys… don't you think that you should tell T.K he can come back now?" Matt asked when he had managed to get his laughter under control. Tai and Sora exchanged glances.

"Nah… he'll come back eventually. Ooh, now Sora and I made the dessert… we know that you'll love it!" Mrs. Takenouchi, who had snuck out when T.K had disappeared, now re-entered the room carrying… a pile of leaves. Tai and Sora felt that they were never going to stop laughing. Yep, home was definitely where the heart is…

The End

Litanya: Well… that definitely turned out differently to what I expected, but I'm happy with it. I know the ending is lame but… I couldn't help it. This is the end of the fic. It's kind of sad in a way. But I might write a sequel to it one day. It depends on how I feel. I've never written a sequel before… anyway, please review and tell me what you think (even if you only want to say that the ending sucked!). I appreciate all feed-back. Anyway, good night/day/afternoon/morning etc!


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